This is the face of the woman who used her position at a women's refuge to defraud local charities of £47,000.

Parvinder Matharu, 60 - formerly of Iver - was jailed for two years and two months on May 23.

Reading Crown Court heard that, between 2013 and 2017, she obtained grants from the Link Foundation, Iver United Charity, Wokingham United Charity, and another organisation which has not been named.

She applied for the funds on fraudulent grounds, using the names of non-existent vulnerable adults.

At sentencing, Judge Heather Norton told Matharu: "Those charities provided grants for some of the most vulnerable people in society, and the frauds that you committed were frauds which, ultimately, will have reduced the aid available to those most vulnerable people in society."

Matharu was due to stand trial on five counts of fraud, but she pleaded guilty to all charges mere weeks before the jury was convened.

The defendant formerly headed Sewak Housing Services, a refuge for BAME women in Slough.

She was respected in the local charity sector, and there is evidence that some of the stolen funds were invested in her own charity projects.

Detective Inspector Duncan Wynn, the head of Thames Valley Police's Central Fraud Unit, said: "Parvinder Matharu abused the trust placed in her to systematically defraud charities of a substantial amount of money purely for her personal gain.

"By doing this, she left charities unable to provide critical funding for vulnerable people who were entitled to the charity funding that Matharu stole.

"Her offences were sophisticated and pre-meditated in nature, involving the setting up of fake applications and then providing false invoices to cover her tracks, enabling her to commit the fraudulent activity over a sustained period of time.

"Wrongly, fraud is often seen as a victimless crime. In this case, precious charity funds were stolen ... [leaving] vulnerable persons at risk of harm and unable to get the support they needed.

"This conviction and subsequent sentence shows how seriously these offences are taken by the courts, and sends a clear message that Thames Valley Police will relentlessly pursue fraud suspects and bring them to justice.

"If you suspect an offence of fraud, please contact us by calling 101, or leaving the information via our website. We will listen and support you."

“Great credit goes to Detective Constable Jags Sekhon, who diligently investigated this case throughout and ensured that the charities were supported in seeking justice."