CROYDON Athletic's former chairman, who stole more than £500,000 from his bosses to prop up the team, was jailed for three years today (Thursday).

Dean Fisher, 36, who at one point weighed 26 stone, also used the cash to pay for a fat-busting gastric band.

He splurged £130,000 on gambling and more than £100,000 more on luxuries including a Rolex watch and a Range Rover.

Fisher wrote false invoices at his advertising agency.

He also told colleagues at TCS Media he had cancer so he could enjoy days at the races.

Judge John Price told him: "You tried to look big and you were prepared to steal from the company to do it.

"You were in a position of trust, and you breached that for all the wrong reasons.You were trying to support a club for which you had no right to steal to support.

"You spent money on luxury items, the car and the Rolex, and you almost ruined the company."

Fisher wept in the dock as sentence was passed.

Prosecutor Usha Shergill told the court Fisher had worked at the firm in Bayswater, central London for 15 years when the fraud began in May 2008.

The administration and production manager stole the cash by forging a series of invoices, telling bosses they were to pay for orders of paper, but instead diverting the funds either to his own bank accounts or to the football club.

In total, he stole £525,825 during his fraud spree, with £260,000 going into the running costs of Croydon Athletic and the rest spent on gambling and personal luxuries.

Miss Shergill said he had managed to convince colleagues he was suffering from cancer, telling the court: "They were very supportive of him.

"In actual fact, he was at the races, and on one occasion he was at hospital having stomach surgery carried out privately."

When he turned up to work in a new Range Rover, Fisher told colleagues his father had given it to him as a present.

The defendant was eventually forced to own up to the fraud, after his colleagues realised that the invoices were forgeries.

In an impact statement to the court, TCS managing director Simon Parker said the fraud had "left me cold".

"Not only was the business on its knees with the economic climate, but we now found ourselves defrauded of £500,000," he added.

"Not only that, but it was also a shock to find that Dean had never had cancer."

Daniel Jones, representing Fisher, said his client was "thoroughly ashamed" of what he had done, and was determined to pay back the money he had stolen.

The court heard a civil order has been made requiring the married father-of-four to return the stolen cash, and that he has had to sell his family home to start to work off the debt.

His wife and children, who had no idea about the fraud, have been left with nothing, and are now living in rented accommodation.

Fisher, of Ramsay Place, Caterham, admitted one count of fraud between May 2008 and August 2009.