A former Culham contractor has escaped jail despite stealing £54,000 from his employer.

Terrence Hutchinson, who worked at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, near Abingdon, between 2006 and 2009, worked as a contractor through an agency called Rullion.

An audit of in late 2009, showed that the 63-year-old had submitted a number of claims for overtime payments for hours that he had not worked, falsifying the time sheets and forging the signatures of two of his supervisors to ensure he was paid these amounts.

He was arrested by officers from Didcot in November 2009 and charged three months later with stealing £53,804.35 from his employers and false accounting between January 2006 and October 2009.

Hutchinson, from Henley Drive, Highworth, near Swindon, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service.

He was also ordered to pay compensation of £45,000 to his former employers and £1,200 court costs.

He appeared at Reading Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to the offences.

Det Con Stephen Knight said: “Hutchinson abused his position to systematically steal thousands of pounds from his employers.

“As a result, he now has to pay a considerable amount of compensation to his employers, complete hundreds of hours of community service, and has a suspended prison sentence.

“I hope this is a lesson to those who seek to steal from their employers that Thames Valley Police is committed to pursuing cases of this kind and you will be punished by the courts.”