The father of an Edgware woman who died in 2002 has been jailed for three years after admitting stealing £80,000 of donations from the charity he set up in his deceased daughter's name.

Model Kati Jacobs, of Whitchurch Gardens, died aged 22 from a rare form of Crohn's disease.

Her father, Stephen, 53, set up the Kati Jacobs Appeal with the aim of raising £250,000 over three years to fund a new research unit into the bowel disease at St Mark's Hospital in Harrow, where his daughter was treated.

But Luton Crown Court heard how Jacobs, who now lives in The Heath, Radlett, took the money for himself. The court was told Jacobs worked as a paid fundraiser for the appeal, between March 2003 and July 2004. During that time the Kati Jacobs Appeal received £138,000 in donations, of which the hospital received only £10,000.

Some of the money had come from the Walk for Crohn's sponsored event through Hyde Park which raised more than £14,000 in its first year and attracted media attention because of the involvement of footballer Les Ferdinand and Duncan James, member of boy band Blue.

But the money was never forwarded to the hospital.

Jacobs also used contacts he had made at Arsenal Football Club in his work as an addiction counsellor, to arrange a charity football match.

Former Arsenal stars Ashley Cole, Ray Parlour and Nigel Winterburn and actor Ralf Little turned out to support the match.

Eventually the hospital terminated Jacobs' contract and asked him for accounts but their requests were ignored and the police were called in.

Prosecutor Ian McLaughlin said: "This was a man who over a period of about two years siphoned off £80,000 which would have gone directly to the target charity; £63,000 had been withdrawn in cash with £17,000 being paid into his account or spent on a credit card he had sole use of."

When he was arrested, Jacobs admitted taking the cash and sometimes forging the signature of the trustee who had to countersign the cheques.

Ruby Hamid, defending, said the money had been spent on maintaining his family life and meeting debts and rehabilitation costs for his son who had developed an addiction during Kati's illness.

She said: "The crime seems inexcusable and he has to live with the damage he has done to the legacy of his daughter.

"He has committed a disgraceful crime but he has done good in his time."

Recorder Martin Oldham said: "The death of a child after a long, hard struggle would knock anyone for six, and on one side you are a good, decent man.

"But this theft shows the mean and despicable side of your character. I deplore your behaviour."