A fraudster jailed for five years after defrauding his in-laws has been accused of stealing £40,000 from the Borehamwood eruv fund.

The committee responsible for raising funds and getting support for building an eruv in Borehamwood has alleged that Dan Jacobs, 39, took the money, intended for the eruv's construction. The committee decided not to report it at the time - a decision it has defended.

Jacobs left the committee in 2009 after three years as company secretary, once plans were set in place but before the eruv became functional in 2010. It is understood that the stolen funds were replaced by his relatives.

In a statement made on Wednesday, the EBOR Eruv Charitable Trust wrote that “around May 2009, the Trustees were unable to obtain the management accounts which they had requested from Mr Jacobs.

“Upon investigation by the Trustees it became clear that Mr Jacobs had taken funds from the Trust’s account without authorisation.”

The committee justified its actions in not reporting the offence, saying: “The trustees reached a position where all funds were repaid, and sanctions were put in place against Mr Jacobs by local synagogues.

“This process enabled the Trust to proceed without delay to build the eruv which has been serving the community now for five years.”

“The legal advice received was clear that the trustees had no obligation to report the matter the police if the funds were repaid; and that their priority should be to do their best to recover the funds for the Trust so that its charitable objectives could be fulfilled.

“The trustees acted on the advice received and did what they considered to be best for the trust.”

Jacobs, a former member of Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, was jailed for five years on Friday after leaving his family "decimated," Judge Ian Stern told Harrow Crown Court.

Jacobs had admitted five counts of fraud committed over nearly five years between 2010 and 2015, after he left the eruv committee.

He took a total of £120,573 from his wife's parents and elderly grandmother, who lives in a care home, through what both the prosecution and the defence referred to as an elaborate “web of deceit”.

Passing sentence, the judge said that Jacobs had subjected his family to a "frankly unbelievable" level of deceit to fund his gambling addiction.

"You completely controlled your father-in-law and mother-in-law and the grandmother," he added.