A MAN who stole more than £5,000 from a voluntary group while serving as a Rossendale councillor has been jailed for nine months.

Stephen Birtwell, 55, was first chairman and then treasurer for the council-funded Haslingden Estates Management Board Society Ltd, from which he stole the cash.

Burnley Crown Court heard the jobless and hard-up former Hollands Pies worker forged a cheque a month over two years and tried to cover his tracks by producing a bogus audit on his home computer.

His behaviour, which he later could not bring himself to admit, could have pointed the figure of suspicion at others, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Birtwell, once a school governor and connected with 60 local organisations, listened in the dock as a judge described his case as "particularly sad."

The defendant, of Oak Avenue, Rising Bridge, had earlier admitted 20 counts of theft, totalling £5,312.85, between April 1999 and May 2001.

He had no previous convictions.

Judge Stuart Baker told the defendant that the one man the friendly society and "forum" for council tenants should have been able to trust was the chairman or treasurer.

Judge Baker added :" It is necessary to send a clear and consistent message to the public that this type of breach of trust will not go without a serious, and it may seem to you severe, punishment."

Arthur Stuttard, prosecuting, told the court the society was run by volunteers who were tenants of Rossendale Council.

He said it was a forum to raise issues over properties in Haslingden and was funded by an annual £9,000 grant from the council.

He said two signatures were needed on cheques for the board's bank account and a former treasurer Edith Smith was one signatory.

He said Birtwell forged her signature and used it on cheques with his own signature which was also on the bank mandate.

Some cheques were paid into Haslingden Conservative Club's account, at the time effectively controlled by Birtwell.

The cash was not going to the club but to him.

Jeremy Lasker, defending, said Birtwell, divorced two and half years ago, was suffering a heart problem and was living in council accommodation on benefits.

The barrister continued: "Life for him has now really hit rock bottom."

Mr Lasker said the defendant had now had to give up what was a lifetime of service in many different areas of the community and his life was completely changed.

Birtwell had been involved with 60 societies and bodies and had given freely of his time and efforts.

He had been a governor of Tor View, Haslingden, and Stonefold Primary Schools and was on the committees of the Northern Society for Clean Air, Rossendale Hill Walking Society and the George Duckworth charity, set up for the needs of Haslingden people.