The former finance director of an elite music college was jailed on Wednesday for fraud totalling more than £200,000.
Janet Whitehouse, 56, stole £100,000 from the 190-year-old Royal Academy of Music after fabricating paperwork.
She then submitted false invoices on behalf of her company Whiteley Associates for work costing £103,950.
Whitehouse also "betrayed" her bosses by arranging for her son to stay in rent-free accommodation at the academy, whose alumni include Elton John and Annie Lennox.
Whitehouse, of the Isle of Dogs, east London, pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this month at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
She was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court, the Crown Prosecution said.
Andrew Penhale, of the CPS's central fraud group, said: "Janet Whitehouse was a trusted finance director at the Royal Academy of Music, previously believed by her employers to be doing an excellent job.
"She has admitted betraying that trust by defrauding the Academy to the tune of £236,000.
"She has been sentenced for three offences, involving fabricating paperwork in order to increase her pension fund by £100,000, securing rent-free accommodation for her son valued in excess of £30,000 and submitting false invoices for her own benefit for over £100,000.
"She committed this fraud against a national institution over a period of four years.
"We are pleased to have brought the case to a swift conclusion."
Her scam was exposed after members of middle management at the college became suspicious in August 2010.