A man from Stratford has been sentenced after siphoning off more than £31,000 from his employers in the City of London.

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Ian Burleton, 42, of Gordon Road, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

The former revenue controller had previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position at City of London Magistrates' Court. He was also handed a 30 day rehabilitation order and 180 hours unpaid community work.

In the course of his work for a law firm, Burleton had diverted 13 company payments to a service provider into his and his partner's bank accounts: a total of £31,970 over a year and a half.

The company's suspicions were aroused after one of its service providers complained they had not been paid for three months.

An inspection of the banking records revealed Burleton had changed the account details on the invoices, and taken three payments for himself.

Following the discovery Burleton was dismissed and further investigation found he had diverted 10 other payments to a second account in his name, in an attempt to conceal the funds.

The case was reported to Action Fraud and passed to the City of London Police's fraud squad, and he was arrested on May 8, 2019.

In his defence of his actions, Burleton claimed he had large child maintenance bills he needed to pay.

But analysis of his outgoing payments revealed evidence of him spending large sums of money on flights, holidays and at expensive bars and restaurants.

Det Con Simon Andrews, who led the investigation, said: "Burleton was a wholly deceitful person, abusing the trust put in him by his employer and exploiting his knowledge of their systems to manipulate those around him.

"Thanks to Burleton's employer acting on suspicions and reporting him to Action Fraud, we have been able to expose him for the serial fraudster that he is."

A victim surcharge will be considered after post-conviction confiscation proceedings.