An administrator at The Guardian who stole more than £138,000 from the newspaper to bankroll his wedding has been jailed for 20 months.

Adeyinka Laryea-Adekimi, 34, a Nigerian-British, was in charge of paying freelance journalists at the Guardian Media Group when he started siphoning off money in August 2017.

The Evening Standard reports that he paid himself large sums of cash until October 2018, when the company realised payments were going into his bank account instead of to reporters.

Snaresbrook crown court heard yesterday that the stolen funds were spent on a wedding in Portugal, a honeymoon in Thailand and gifts for his wife — who knew nothing about the fraud.

Sue Obeney, representing Laryea-Adekimi, said he kept his wife in the dark about his conviction, not even telling her about his sentencing hearing.

Judge Nigel Peters said: “This was an act of pure greed.”

The Guardian Media Group confirmed an administrator left following an internal investigation.