Stroud charity truck-pull organiser Gary Gardner has been jailed for two and a half years after being found guilty of fraud.

Gardner, 54, faced charges of fraud relating to truck pulls he organised in Leicestershire between 2013 and 2015 in aid of murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby’s six-year-old son Jack.

Between 2013 and 2015 Gardner, of Medbourne in Leicester, put together three charity truck-pull events in Stroud in aid of The Door Youth Project and Action for Children.

None of the charges concerned Gardner’s fundraising events in the Stroud district.

Instead they relate to three truck-pull events in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the Leicestershire towns of Medbourne and Market Harborough.

These annual events were attended by thousands of people, including Fusilier Rigby’s widow Rebecca, 33, and their son Jack.

Music, media and event specialist Gardner also manages a band called Together in Harmony, which he said was a ‘group of up and coming artists from all over the UK’ supporting many different charitable causes.

He claimed on his LinkedIn profile that it released a charity single which was ‘raising funds for the Fusilier Aid Society and a trust fund for Fusilier Lee Rigby’s son’.

But it is alleged the youngster received nothing from any of the events.

Jack was aged two when his dad was killed by Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, when he was attacked outside Woolwich Barracks, London on May 22, 2013.

Adebolajo was given a whole-life term and Adebowale was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for the murder of Fusilier Rigby, who was from Middleton, Manchester.