A MANAGER at a Kent grammar school stole electronic equipment to sell on an Internet auction site.

Terence Charlton, 53, who was in charge of the computer network at Barton Court Grammar School at Canterbury for nine years, took £12,000 worth of items.

He then sold them on eBay to pay off some of his £14,000 worth of debt, Canterbury Crown Court heard. Charlton’s deputy, Simon Luckin, raised the alarm after noticing how missing items were turning up for sale on eBay.

James Bilsand, prosecuting, said Charlton was pocketing the cash from the sales, done through his eBay name Spectec2003.

Charlton, who now lives on a boat at Great Wakering, Southend, was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 300 hours of unpaid work. He admitted theft.

The judge also imposed a four-month curfew, ordering him to be electronically tagged between 8pm and 8am. Mr Bilsand said the school’s deputy head Penelope Winston became concerned about the way Charlton was ordering equipment for the IT department and having it delivered to his home.

But Mr Bilsand said Charlton’s deputy then became suspicious about his activities when he realised that items of computer hardware had gone missing from computers at the school.

Charlton left his post at the school in March and was later arrested and admitted his thefts, going through two years of eBay receipts to highlight the £12,000 worth of stolen equipment which he later sold for £7,489.

Grace Cullen, defending, said Charlton had turned to stealing because his life had fallen apart and he was in debt.

Charlton offered to repay the £12,000 at £50 a month, but Judge Nigel van der Bijl ordered him to pay just £2,000 in compensation.

He told Charlton that his thieving had done “great damage” financially to the school.