A travel agent is due to be sentenced today for stealing thousands of euro from a charity he set up to send terminally ill children to Lapland.

John Cornelius Murphy of Church Road, Killiney, Co. Dublin lodged four cheques from the charity into his own bank account.

John or Con Murphy has spent the past four days behind bars.

After just 42 minutes of deliberations last Thursday, the 12 men and women of the jury found him guilty on all four counts of theft.

The 66-year-old set up The Children to Lapland Appeal and helped send thousands of sick children to see Santa before it was liquidated in 2012.

Between June and July 2010, he lodged four cheques into his own personal account – an account he also used to run his company United Travel.

The total amount taken was just over €18,600. The court heard the charity owed him €69,000 at the end of 2009.

The maximum penalty for theft is 10 years in prison, and Mr Murphy is due to be sentenced later this morning.