A COMPANY director who embezzled more than £2,000 from the military charity Help For Heroes has been jailed for nine months.

David Kennedy, 39, registered with the charity and set up a stall where he collected funds that should have been sent on to them.

However it is feared Kennedy, of Larkhall, Lanarkshire, could have pocketed thousands of pounds meant for needy war veterans as no records were kept of cash he received from generous donors.

The value of his fraud was only linked to the cost of the fundraising pack sent to him by Help for Heroes bosses.

Suspicions were raised after Kennedy, who claims to have served with the Armed Forces, collected cash at an Asda supermarket in Hamilton in May 2012.

He was later charged with embezzling a total of £2,031.

Kennedy, who ran a transport firm, admitted the fraud at Hamilton Sheriff Court and he was jailed for five months for his "despicable" crime. He had a further four months added to his jail term for other unrelated offences.

The court also heard Kennedy had helped his 16-year-old daughter abscond from foster care and had failed to appear at an earlier court hearing.

Defence lawyer Robert Turnbull said Kennedy hoped to repay the money.

Sheriff Ray Small told Kennedy: "I have read the reports and I have no faith that if I give you the chance to repay the money that it will ever be repaid. Given your history and record of offending then there is no alternative to custody.

"The charge of embezzlement is a despicable crime and Help for Heroes is a very popular charity with the public because of the work it does with war veterans.

"We will never know how much money you actually took because the value was only that of the cost of the volunteer pack to set up the stall."

Help for Heroes was founded by Bryn and Emma Parry in 2007 to help Armed Forces personnel wounded in battle.