A FORMER community councillor who stole a laptop computer from the local youth club has been jailed for four months.

Abergavenny magistrates said James Neil Bainbridge had breached the position of trust he held as a committee member of Govilon village hall committee.

Bainbridge, 58, who runs the village shop in Govilon, admitted obtaining £1,124 by deception from Cornhill Insurance and stealing the laptop computer.

He was given a two month sentence for the first charge and four months for the second, the sentences to run concurrently.

Bainbridge lodged an immediate appeal but the court refused to allow him bail until the appeal was heard.

Magistrates' chairman Mrs Judy Anthony said: "We have decided on custody because of the seriousness of the offences when you were in a position of trust. You made a conscious decision to falsify the list of items claimed from the insurance company." Prosecutor Paul Bevan said that Bainbridge was a member of the village hall committee in November 1998 when they bought computer equipment, including the laptop, for use by the youth club.

The following February the hall was burgled and the committee made a claim for the stolen equipment, including the laptop which Bainbridge said was taken.

Mr Bevan said: "But he knew the laptop had not been stolen because it was in his house and when interviewed he said he saw it as a chance to get his own computer.

"He then replaced the 'stolen' computer with another laptop and retained that. When the new committee took over in June 2000 they made inquiries about the missing laptop and eventually it turned up in the hall."

Mr Bevan added until it was returned to the hall Bainbridge had retained the original laptop.

But the committee realised there should have been two laptops and when police searched his home they found the second one hidden under a duvet.

Defence solicitor Richard Lovell said Bainbridge had no previous convictions and until the theft had an unblemished character. "He has to face his customers every day knowing he has lost his good name and reputation." Mr Lovell said he was a member of the committee who helped run the youth club and he used the laptop to prepare a project plan for the hall for lottery funding.

*Bainbridge resigned from Llanfoist Fawr community council before his first court appearance.