Manjinder Virdi has been sentenced to three years in prison at Snaresbrook Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

Virdi joined the British Society of Echocardiography as a financial administrator in 2015 and was later promoted to a finance officer, a role that gave him access to the charity’s bank and PayPal accounts.

In May 2019, another staff member received an email from the charity’s bank about potential fraudulent activities in their accounts, with the email then being forwarded to Virdi to look into it in his role of a finance officer.

Virdi told his colleagues that he had investigated the issue and had spoken to the bank and that it was a scam email that should be ignored.