Convicted fraudster Hugh Morgan-Williams of Thirsk loses OBE

Hugh Morgan-Williams, who lives near Thirsk, was given the honour in 2008 by Queen Elizabeth II for services to businesses in the North East.

But in June last year he pleaded guilty to defrauding a privatised part of the probation service when he was its chairman and pocketing £26,966 of its funds.

Now King Charles III has taken the OBE off him. 

King Charles (Image: PA)

A statement on the Cabinet Office website confirmed that the 70-year-old former trustee of Cowesby Charity, which helps people in and around Cowesby near Thirsk, had forfeited his honour because of his criminal conviction.

Morgan-Williams was one of three people stripped of their honour. Another was Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive boss, who was judged to have “brought the honours system into disrepute”.

She was given the CBE in 2019 and said last month she would hand it back as the Post Office Horizon scandal grew.

In June, Teesside Crown Court heard that Morgan-Williams used personal contacts with a private company he had links to, to procure contracts for Durham and Tees Valley Community Rehabilitation Company (DTVCRC) and took ten per cent of the contract value for his own personal use without the knowledge of the board.

Morgan-Williams, of Thornton-le-Moor, near Thirsk, pleaded guilty to fraud between January 1, 2015, and February 1, 2016, relating to his time at the company, which was responsible for rehabilitating defendants not sent to prison. It, like all community rehabilitation companies, is now part of the renationalised probation service.

He was sentenced to 17 months in prison suspended for 12 months.

The disgraced former charity trustee was also chairman of the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.