Teacher Tim Green fleeced schoolchildren of 34,000 after crying off a skiing holiday claiming he had altitude sickness.

Green vanished with the money just 24 hours before the trip to France leaving 120 youngsters from schools in Abingdon and Headington high and dry.

Yesterday he was sentenced to eight months in jail. He had been tracked down to a cottage in the French Alps not far from the resort of Annecy which was to have been the setting for the skiing trip. The families of the children from Cheney School, Headington, and Fitzharry's School, Abingdon are still out of pocket to the tune of 300 each. Green, a part-time modern languages teacher, was traced after a three-year investigation by Thames Valley Police Fraud Squad and Interpol. His arrest came in 1998 after he returned to England to take up a teaching job in Colchester, Essex.

The 45-year-old, formerly of Denman's Farm, Farmoor, admitted 20 charges of theft and five of procuring money by deception to a total of 8,538 when he appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.

The missing 34,000 was never recovered.

Simon Draycott, prosecuting, told the court Green had been employed on a part-time contract at Cheney School when he suggested the week-long ski trip planned for February 1997. He produced leaflets inviting parents to pay 300 by deposit and direct debit.

The money was then transferred in small amounts to an off-shore bank account in Guernsey.

Nicholas Syfret, defending, said Green was a man of good character who had tried to contribute to society.

"He over-reached himself by trying to arrange the holiday and a consequence was that he was using money paid by parents to cover some of his personal living expenses. This was not a scam in that the holiday was planned and was genuine,'' he said. Sentencing Green to eight months concurrent for each of the 25 charges, Mr Justice Kennedy said: "The very nature of the fashion in which the money was subscribed shows these were not families who were able to find the money easily and from the outset that money was being misapplied.

"This was not a scam to defraud, but for a reasonably intelligent man you must have known from an early stage that there was no sensible prospect of making good your promises, yet you went on taking the money."

The first parents knew there was a problem was a letter from Green in which he wrote: "It is my painful duty to tell you that after consultations with a number of parents, I have to cancel the trip at the last minute in view of my continued failing health." He claimed he had a racing pulse which worsened at altitude and that he would reimburse everyone.

David Holloway, 19, of Pagisters Road, Abingdon, was one of the Fitzharry's pupils left devastated when the trip was cancelled.

He said: "It is good news. I am just annoyed that it took so long. I thought he was going to get away with it.

"When we got the letter I thought it was a joke, I simply couldn't believe it. I was all packed and ready to go. It left me in total shock."

Det Con Jerry Walters, the officer in charge of the investigation, said: "I am disappointed that parents were not able to get any renumeration and, bearing that in mind, I am disappointed that the sentence did not reflect the serious breach of trust."