CAB pair's claim 'flabbergasting'

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The chair of trustees of a Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) said he was "flabbergasted" after a couple running a branch claimed £76,000 in expenses.

Dale and Sally Foster, 64 and 49, from Swansea's Maritime Quarter are accused of siphoning up to £650,000 from the Ammanford CAB.

Witness Stephen Bell told Swansea Crown Court their expense claim was "beyond anyone's wildest dreams".

The Fosters deny 11 counts of theft and five accounts of false accounting.

Jurors have heard how the couple allegedly used the cash to fund stays in top hotels and lavish holidays, champagne and wine.

Their alleged outgoings included a £17,000 ski trip to Whistler in Canada, a stay at the Ritz in London, and shopping trips to Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

Paper trail

The court heard from Geraint Walters, prosecuting, on Wednesday that the couple ran the town's bureau in Iscennen Road, which was largely staffed by unpaid volunteers.

He said the Fosters set up a series of secret bank accounts into which they transferred cash from the CAB to pay for their lavish spending.

Mr Walters also claimed they set up bogus companies to create the facade of a legitimate paper trail or book keeping, even creating counterfeit invoices.

The scam emerged when the couple both suddenly quit work during Easter 2006, allegedly because they knew they were about to be found out, Mr Walters said.

Jurors have been told the couple resigned by posting the office keys through the workplace letterbox of a CAB volunteer.

Mr Bell, chairman of the town's board of trustees and a solicitor, told how he started investigating the office accounts after finding the keys deposited in his letterbox.

First class rail

He said initially it was discovered that the offices appeared to have been emptied of most of its records and even its computer system had been wiped clean.

After tracking down records that had survived, he took home a red box file of financial documents and started sorting through them.

Mr Bell said he found invoices charged to the CAB for training "which were basically little more than pieces of paper with 'Sally and Dale to London' written on them".

One invoice was for £500 for a meal, while there were first class rail tickets to London costing almost £200 each and a £1,500 invoice for eye tests which culminated in an order for six pairs of designer spectacles for the couple.

"Which I thought was rather excessive, I was completely thrown by what I found in the box," Mr Bell said.

He told the court that volunteer staff at the bureau rarely bothered to claim expenses, and if anyone did it tended to be very detailed.

Mr Walters said the couple's expenses claim of £76,000 was an agreed figure by both the defence and prosecution.

"As chairman of the board of trustees is there anything you want to say about that?" he asked Mr Bell.

"That I am totally flabbergasted by the figure, it is way beyond anyone's wildest dreams, " he said.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, continues.