Adeyinka Laryea-Adekimi, pictured outside Snaresbrook Crown Court in London, where he was jailed for 20 months for stealing £20,000 from the Guardian

An accounts clerk for the Guardian newspaper was jailed for 20 months today after siphoning off £138,000 to pay for his luxury wedding and honeymoon.

Adeyinka Laryea-Adekimi also showered his new wife with gifts using the stolen cash but she knew nothing about his campaign of fraud, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Laryea-Adekimi, 34, was employed by the Guardian Media Group [GMG] - owners of the Guardian and Observer newspapers - to pay freelance journalists for their work.

But after getting the accounts job in August 2017 he started sending the cash to his own account instead.

The £138,000 he stole bankrolled his wedding in Portugal and the 5-star honeymoon that followed in Thailand.

He also bought gifts for his spouse, who his lawyer told court was unaware of the fraud, according to the Evening Standard.

It was only 14 months later in October 2018 that the company realised money was heading into his account instead of to reporters.

Laryea-Adekimi, 34, was employed by the Guardian Media Group [GMG] - owners of the Guardian and Observer newspapers - to pay freelance journalists for their work but stole money instead

The thief's bosses at the Guardian in Kings Cross, London, took 14 months to realise he was taking money for himself

Laryea-Adekimi's defence lawyer Sue Obeney told the crown court that she didn't even know he was in the dock about to be sentenced.

Jailing him for 20 months Judge Nigel Peters told him: 'This was an act of pure greed.'

The Guardian Media Group has said that he was sacked following an internal probe.