A parent who stole more than £28,000 from the PTA account at a St Albans primary school was jailed for nine months by a judge who told him he had committed "mean and nasty offences."

Dean White, 31, whose partner was the treasurer of the association at Prae Wood Primary School, King Harry Lane, took the money between December 2015 and September last year.

On Thursday, St Albans crown court heard that he first stole the proceeds of the school's Christmas Fair in December 2015. The money, £5,722, had been put in a safe by his wife at their home. It never reached the bank.

Prosecutor Oliver Doherty said he then paid money from the school's account into his own, making it appear as if it was going to a company that had printed summer fair booklets.

The total loss to the association was £28,579, said Mr Doherty.

White of Cassius Drive, St Albans pleaded guilty to theft and fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing. He had four cautions for offences of dishonesty. Two were for theft and two for fraud.

Defending, Matthew Pardoe said White had been trying to make ends meet, but was failing.

He said: "He was trying to pay it back as it went along, but the cheques he was paying into the account were bouncing. He was thinking he could pay it back, but his business was not making enough money.

"Anyone who looked at the accounts would have realised something was wrong. The level of deceit was not sophisticated. He tried to pay it back before it was discovered."

He asked the judge for a suspended sentence, saying White could pay £10,000 in 28 days.

But Judge Andrew Bright QC jailed him saying: "You stole very substantial amount of money, which could have been put to good use. Instead it went into your pocket.

"It is said you were doing no more than borrowing the money, but all the cheques paid in bounced.

"There was a measure of sophistication and planning over a period of several months. They were mean and nasty offences. The victims were the children who attended that school."

There is to be a confiscation hearing on July 6.