A BUCKLEBURY shopkeeper who was a Middleton family guest at this year's Royal wedding has avoided jail after admitting fraud.

Hasmukh Shingadia, who runs Peaches Spar Store in Upper Bucklebury, was given an eight-month sentence suspended for a year for claiming that the amount of cash-in-hand money held at a Post Office branch inside his shop was more than the true figure.

The 51-year-old, known as "Hash", appeared at Oxford Crown Court last Thursday where a judge heard how he used cash from the Post Office to prop up the troubled shop side of the business.

Shingadia, who has since repaid the money owed to the Post Office, admitted one charge of false accounting between December 2008 and March 2010, but denied stealing £16,180.60 found missing from the Post Office during an audit in March last year.

Shingadia, who shot to international fame after he and wife Chandrika were invited to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who used to buy their sweets from the shop when they were courting.

He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £2,269.69 costs.