A victim of a £5million church fraud said the imprisonment of Patrick Coppeard 'absolves' his victims of guilt.

Mr Coppeard, a former magistrate and church warden at St John’s church in Buckhurst Hill, was jailed for six years on Thursday after admitting a single charge of fraud by abuse of position.

Over the course of five years, Coppeard lost £3.34m of the £5.4m he raked in from a 'ponzi-like' scheme which included church funds.

The majority of the money was lost on sports gambling sites with £1 million lost at BET365.

He eventually handed himself into the police in May 2013, in what the prosecution described as jumping "before being pushed."

Former friend and victim David Sunderland, who personally lost £38,000 before retrieving it when Coppeard was forced to sell his house, said:

“He was still taking significant amounts of money off people hours before he handed himself in to police.

“He was the go-to-guy for the church. Everybody trusted him, if someone else had done this to the church we would have wanted Patrick to sort it out.”

Following Coppeard ‘s conviction Mr Sunderland, 50, said that the banker had shown 'no remorse' to his victims.

“He had no barriers, he took money off people who were dying of cancer, students and retired people, without the means of ever getting it back. He would have gone for my daughter if he had the chance.

“This sentence I hope absolves the guilt felt by many of the victims, it is now clear who the bad guy is, it is him.”

Mr Sunderland, of Ardmore Lane in Buckhurst Hill, whose wife and daughter are active members of the church, said: “The congregation were running around like headless chickens when it broke."

He has now formed an action support group for 50 of the victims and is seeking to challenge banks and betting companies to see if they acted with negligence.

“I got my money back but I just couldn’t sit back and do nothing.

“This is not about Patrick anymore the police have dealt with him, this is about rebuilding the lives of his victims.”

Patrick Coppeard’s first parole is expected in October 2017.