A former chief accountant at a government-funded thinktank killed himself as he awaited trial for allegedly stealing £600,000 from the now defunct organisation, an inquest has heard.
Charles Taylor, who worked for the International Centre of Financial Regulation, was awaiting trial over the alleged theft when he took his own life at home on 14 May.
The 55-year-old was charged in January 2014 with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting for allegedly defrauding ICFR out of £598,705.
The father of two, who was declared bankrupt, was found by his wife when she returned to their country home in Hermitage, near Newbury, Berkshire.
The ICFR was endorsed by Gordon Brown when it was set up in 2009 and was funded by £3m of government grants and a further £1m from banks including Barclays and HSBC. Three years later it went into liquidation after it was discovered that £600,000 was missing.
A statement by his wife, Margaret, read to the inquest in Reading, Berkshire said she found her husband on the bed in a spare room at their home.
“I shouted at him to try to wake him up but he didn’t respond,” she said.
The assistant coroner for Berkshire, Emma Jones, told the inquest that Taylor had been described as “secretive and not facing up to the truth”.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Jones said: “I am satisfied that he took his own life and that is the formal conclusion which will be recorded today.”
