A woman who stole nearly £800,000 from a charity closely associated with the Notting Hill Carnival has been jailed.

Nadia Deone Chase Ali had worked for the Carnival Village Trust (CVT) as their financial officer before going on to work freelance as someone expected to safeguard CVT and its trading arm Tabernacle W11's financial interests.

From March 2014 and December 2016, while working for the charity, which receives funding from Kensington and Chelsea Council and Arts Council, she made 530 separate payments from both charity's accounts into her personal account.

Ali disguised the transactions she made, which totalled £784,262.56, as being payments to legitimate suppliers, service providers and even government organisations. A significant amount of that money was sent to Trinidad, Chase Ali's homeland.

She hid several documents from the charities at her home address in Bonchurch Road, Ladbroke Grove, including outstanding invoices and demand letters from the real companies who had not yet received payments.

Her home was raided and she was arrested on March 16 2017, but she provided no explanation to police regarding the documents they uncovered in her home.

On October 31 2017, she was charged with fraud by abuse of position, theft and removing money from England and Wales.

Chase Ali's trial began on June 11 at Isleworth Crown Court. On day two of the trial, she decided to change her plea on two counts to admit fraud by abuse of position and removal of criminal property out of England and Wales.

Nadia Deone Chase Ali defrauded the Carnival Village Trust out of nearly £800,000

She maintained her innocence to theft of the financial documents from the Tabernacle.

A jury found her guilty of theft, fraud by abuse of position and removal of criminal property from England and Wales.

Chase Ali received a five year and 10 month sentence for her fraud conviction, with a consecutive two-month sentence for theft. A three month sentence for removing criminal property from the UK.

The charity worked closely to help organise the Notting Hill Carnival

Andrew Caird, from the CPS, said: "Nadia Chase Ali acted dishonestly and in her own interests when she siphoned off nearly £800,000 from the charity with close links to the Notting Hill Carnival.

“Our prosecution was able to show that she had sent large amounts of money to her homeland of Trinidad and that she sought to cover her tracks by stealing financial documents that showed her illegal activity.

"Her offending took place over a period of almost three years and showed not only how calculated Chase Ali's actions were, but also demonstrated her complete disregard towards making a gain from taxpayers' money as well as the effect her dishonesty could have had on such an important community event."

Kensington and Chelsea Council has been approached for comment.