A FORMER detective sergeant jailed for stealing £26,000 from a children’s charity has failed in a bid to be set free.

Louise Ord’s legal team pleaded for her to be released as an act of mercy for the sake of her 12-year-old daughter, who is being looked after by a child-minder.

Mr Justice Kenneth Parker rejected Ord’s plea, arguing she deserved to serve every day of the nine-month prison sentence she was given.

Ruling in the Criminal Court of Appeal, in London, he said Ord, 43, of Harwich Road, Colchester, had been trusted by the charity and had not repaid a penny of the money she took.

The cash was intended for young victims of crime, but Ord took it and used it to fund her own “conspicuous personal consumption”, he said.

Ord’s barrister, Rupert Pardoe, told the judge she had been sacked from the City of London Police after 19 years service when she was caught.

Even before she went to jail she had been destitute and living on an inflatable mattress on a friend’s floor.

He said the impact of Ord’s imprisonment on her daughter had been “overwhelming”, despite the fact the girl’s father, a police officer who normally worked on royal protection duties, had been granted compassionate leave to help look after her.

Mr Pardoe said Ord accepted the jail term had been richly deserved, but argued it should have been suspended for the sake of her daughter.

Refusing permission to appeal, Mr Justice Parker said Ord had already been given a shorter sentence as an act of mercy, so she had no arguable grounds for challenging the sentence.

Only half of her nine-month sentence will be spent in jail.

Ord was jailed in November after she admitted fraud by abusing the position she held with the charity, Child Victims of Crime in 2007 and 2008.

Southwark Crown Court heard she took donations, auction proceeds and raffle money raised at dinners she organised for the charity and spent the money on clothes and nights out.

She also withdrew money from the charity’s bank account and kept it.

Passing sentence, the judge said he accepted some of the spending could be blamed on Ord’s alcoholism, but much was down to a mixture of self-interest and greed.

Ord was ordered to pay a nominal £1 compensation, since she had no means to repay the £26,000.