A FORMER champion ice skater who embezzled £1.3 million from a Post Office charity fund to build a property empire and buy his gay lover a baronetcy was jailed for four years yesterday.

Gary Irvin used his trusted position to siphon off money to fake charities and firms and make payments to non-existent consultancy companies.

Irvin, 47, funded a lavish lifestyle for nearly six years, taking luxury holidays with his partner, Sean Lynch, and even buying a retirement home for his 79-year-old mother. At the peak of his career he earned £45,000 controlling a budget of more than £2 million as the director of social policy at the Post Office.

He was in the process of buying his most expensive property, a riverside apartment worth more than £700,000, and treating his boyfriend to a “lord of the manor-type” title when Lucy Griffiths, an office temp, spotted irregularities in his payments.

She discovered that some cheques to different firms were being sent to the same address and one company was named after Irvin’s partner.

At Southwark Crown Court yesterday, Irvin admitted 22 charges of false accounting and seven counts of obtaining a transfer by deception between June 1996 and July 2001.

It emerged that he had spent £800,000 in deposits on 14 buy-to-let properties, mainly in London and involving mortgages totalling £1.7million. Another home was bought outright. Irvin had also tried to buy his lover the Baronetcy of Skibereen in Ireland for £14,000.

Lydia Barnfather, for the prosecution, told the court: “He had a successful career with the Post Office and was considered a competent and able employee. He was able to authorise payments on behalf of the Post Office to charitable and socially worthy causes.

“The conduct commenced when he was a senior account manager. As he progressed through the company, he was able to make larger and larger payments.

“He created bogus third-party recipients and he would describe them as having a charitable purpose. Given Mr Irvin’s position and the requisition authority invested in him, cheques were not being queried and the payments were made.”

Payments were made to an S. Lynch at the UK Historical Consultancy and a company called Propitas Limited. In 1995, he started diverting money to his own bank account.

By the time the fraud was discovered he had swindled £1,387,000 and was in the process of obtaining another £204,000. Irvin and his partner received £927,000 between 1996 and 2001 and Propitas received £380,000 between September 2000 and July 2001.

One payment to Leisure Time Holiday Club of £20,000 was cashed but a second was stopped. Another bogus invoice for £60,000 to Leuty and M Lynch Solicitors — M. Lynch being Sean Lynch’s sister — was disguised as a charity cheque.

Ms Griffiths, a Brook Street secretary working at the Post Office, spotted that the billing address for Propitas and S. Lynch were the same and that Irvin’s partner was called Sean Lynch.

When Irvin was arrested he admitted the deception. Ms Barnfather added: “During the course of the investigation, Mr Irvin’s property was searched and he was found to be in possession of indecent photographs, or pseudo photographs of a child and he was cautioned.”

Judge Neil Stewart told him: “This was a very serious and continuing breach of trust committed over a long period of time by someone in a senior position.” The Post Office has issued civil proceedings against Irvin.

The court heard that Irvin had been British Junior Ice Dance Champion and in the 1980s had come fourth on two occasions in the professional world ice dance championships.

Michael Turner, QC, for the defence, said that Irvin had since his arrest sold his properties to repay his former bosses in full.

He described his client as a deeply troubled individual whose promising school career had been destroyed by a traumatic childhood. Nine years ago he suffered a further “serious psychological setback” as a result of a street gang attack.

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