FORMER air ambulance fundraiser Richard Green has been charged with three counts of theft, and another three offences of false accounting.The Evening Star revealed that Green, 48, of Strickland Manor Hill, Yoxford, was questioned by police in November, after the East Anglian Air Ambulance confirmed he had left his job as Suffolk fundraiser.

By Tracey Sparling

FORMER air ambulance fundraiser Richard Green has been charged with three counts of theft, and another three offences of false accounting.

The Evening Star revealed that Green, 48, of Strickland Manor Hill, Yoxford, was questioned by police in November, after the East Anglian Air Ambulance confirmed he had left his job as Suffolk fundraiser.

The police investigation continued for nine months and a spokesman confirmed Green had been charged today and will appear at Lowestoft Magistrates Court on August 16.

Mr Green was arrested last September in connection with an alleged theft.

He left his job with the air ambulance at the end of August of last year, having taken up the role of Suffolk fundraising co-ordinator in January of the same year.

Mr Green's mission was to raise as much cash as he could by travelling across the county to keep the vital new service within Suffolk airborne.

Funding for the air ambulance is separate from the East Anglian Ambulance Trust's finances and it needed to cover the £850,000-a-year bill for flying the helicopter full time.

He took up the fundraising role at the end of January, taking to the road soon after the helicopter took to the skies.

Money flooded in including sponsorship for the Automobile Association and contributions from the public.

The target was to raise £15,000 a month which was enough to keep the helicopter flying for one day a week.