The trial of a travel agent accused of stealing from a charity he set up to send children to Lapland has heard it owed him €69,000.

John Murphy of Church Road, Killiney, Co Dublin denies lodging four cheques totalling over €18,600 into his personal account.

Mr Murphy ran a travel agent in Stillorgan, Co Dublin and established the charity in 1987 which sent thousands of terminally ill children to see Santa in Lapland.

He is accused of stealing €18,643 by lodging four cheques from the charity’s account into his own personal account between June and July 2010.

The Children to Lapland Appeal was liquidated two years later.

In the first of three interviews with Gardaí, he said he was not paid by the charity for his work as chairman, but did get expenses from time to time.

He insisted he never lodged money from the charity into his personal account.

Today, the court heard his travel agent used to subsidise the charity and there were some interchangeable transactions between the two.

Accounts show his company was owed €69,000 from the charity at the end of 2009.

The prosecution has finished calling evidence and the defence will now put its case forward.