Shoppers at stores in Taunton and Teignmouth allegedly gave hundreds of pounds to collectors whom they falsely believed to be raising money for charity.

Officials at the Morrison supermarkets in both towns agreed to allow Newton Abbot businessman Jamie Monteiro organise bucket collections because they believed the money was going to charity.

The store has a Community Champion at every major branch who is in charge of authorising and organising collections.

The Champions from the Taunton and Teignmouth stores both told Exeter Crown Court that they allowed him to run collections because they believed the cash was going to charity.

Monteiro is on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of misleading the public into giving money to his company called Youth Recruit Ltd.

The prosecution says he organised street collections all over Devon, Cornwall and Somerset using young unemployed people.

He claimed they were selling pamphlets but in reality sought collections and sometimes claimed the money was for charity.

The Crown say he deceived donors by saying cash would go to Shelter, homeless children in Cornwall, and a campaign named Save a Heart to buy defibrillators.

They say any money collected was divided equally between Monteiro and the collectors and that he banked £37,000 during the time he was running the company in 2014 to 2015.

Monteiro, aged 27, of Oaklands Road, Newton Abbot, denies five counts of fraud.

Monteiro, who is representing himself, says nobody was deceived and Youth Recruit was providing employment for young people through the legitimate sale of periodicals.

He denies claiming that any money was to be given to charity and says this was made clear in literature to donors and shops.

Georgia Young, who was Community Champion at the Morrison store at Priory Bridge Road, Taunton in 2015 said she approved a collection in May of that year.

Monteiro sent her a letter of thanks in which he said the collectors had raised £817.52.

She said she believed Youth Recruit to be a charity because there was a charity number for an organisation called Centrepiece at the top of the letter from Youth Recruit.

She said: ‘I thought the letter was a request to collect for charity. The letter had a charity number on it. We only really allow charities to collect. I had no means of checking the charity number

‘The collection took place but what it went towards was not what I had the impression it was going to. My impression was that it was going to charity.’

Stephen Greenway, Community Champion at the Morrison store in Newfoundland Road, Teignmouth, said he agreed to a bucket collection on two days in June 2015.

He believed the money was going to a charity called Save a Heart, which was raising money for medical kit.

He said: ‘Monteiro contacted me through the store. He said he organised Youth Recruit and was making collections for Save a Heart. I thought the money was going to help people in general buy life saving equipment.

‘I thought the money was going to charity. We had numerous charities collecting almost every day and they could raise hundreds of pounds.’

The trial continues.