Paul Kelly, a former vice-president of corporate affairs, faces jail for taking £180,000 from retailer’s flood funds to prop up Murley Dance Company

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A former Asda executive is facing jail after admitting to stealing £180,000 from the retailer’s charity fund for his partner’s ballet company.

Paul Kelly, who was the retailer’s vice-president of corporate affairs, pleaded guilty to seven charges of fraud at Leeds crown court.

He is accused of lying about where the charity funds were going and claiming that the ballet company run by his 36-year-old partner, dancer David Murley, fell within the remit of the Asda Foundation. The money was supposed to go to flood victims.

The former Asda executive was also a government adviser on food policy, alcohol and obesity and an ambassador for Prince Charles’s Business in the Community charity. Kelly attended promotional events for the Tour de France’s Grand Depart in Yorkshire in 2014 with the then deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

Kelly left Asda in September 2014 after an internal investigation.

Three charges relate to Kelly acting “dishonestly and intending to make a gain for himself or another” by making a false representation to the Asda Foundation that money was going to flood victims when instead they were going to the Murley Dance Company. It was not suggested that the dance company was aware that the funds it received were dishonest.

The four remaining charges are connected to Kelly making false representations that the dance company was a charitable organisation whose objectives met those of the Asda Foundation. The offending took place between July 2013 and May 2014.

As well as being head of corporate affairs, a role that spanned media and government relations, Kelly was chairman of the charitable association.

He worked for Asda for seven years and before that was corporate affairs director at catering group Compass. He left Asda days before he was scheduled to sit on a panel at a Labour party conference with Yvette Cooper, who was then shadow home secretary.

Asda said none of the causes it supports would be financially disadvantaged by the scandal.



The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric report. Kelly will be sentenced on 16 February.

