A THEATRE employee and former Britain’s Got Talent star who was suspended after revelations he stole thousands of pounds in a previous job is no longer working at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston.

James Edgington was spared jail after he defrauded Bolton Council of nearly £20,000 by abusing his position as a theatre and events programmer in the town.

He was working at the Ulverston venue when he was sentenced, prompting an investigation.

Following a court hearing he was suspended while Coro bosses probed whether he had been responsible for any wrongdoing in his new job. 

The venue has now confirmed that Edgington is no longer working at The Coro. The probe found no evidence of any financial misconduct.

Bolton Crown Court previously heard that while working at the town's Albert Halls venue the 39-year-old took the money to plug a financial gap in the Bolton Pride charity he co-founded.

Edgington's barrister told the court at the time he had since become The Coro's head of programming.

The defendant, of Thicketford Road in Bolton, came to public attention in 2010 when he appeared alongside his father on Britain’s Got Talent to perform 'This is the Moment' from musical Jekyll and Hyde.

He went on to co-found Bolton Pride in 2015.

But prosecutor Duncan Wilcock told the court how four years later Edgington began a series of crimes that would prove to be his undoing between February 2019 and April 2021.

In an attempt to keep Pride’s finances afloat after a sponsor pulled out, Edgington gave producers who had used Albert Halls his own bank details so around £16,539 of money owed to Bolton Council was paid into his own account.

He also sold 71 tickets to a Sir Ian McKellen show that were supposed to be free at £35 each, with the money again going into his own bank account to 42 customers, coming to £2,485.

But his fraudulent efforts unravelled after Edgington then stole £737 in cash from the safe at Albert Halls and was discovered by his colleagues on March 5 last year.

A subsequent investigation accessed his work emails and uncovered the larger-scale frauds he had been committing.

Edgington admitted his crimes in August this year, pleading guilty to theft and two counts of fraud with one count of attempted fraud.

A spokesman for the Ulverston arts venue said Coro Hall bosses first became aware of the case from media reports when Edgington admitted his crimes.

"On Saturday 21st August 2022 our attention was drawn to a report in The Bolton News dated Friday 20th August," the spokesman said.

"The report stated that on that day, a member of The Coro’s staff pleaded guilty to a number of offences of theft and deception, committed whilst working in a previous role for Bolton Council.

"Until we saw this report, we were completely unaware of these matters."

Edgington was sentenced to ten months in prison suspended for a year and ordered that he complete 200 hours of unpaid work with 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He was ordered to pay £16,539 in compensation to Bolton Council.