Purchased goods by cheque, scammed

A charity purchased 100 items with the agreement they would be sent out over the period a year. It was paid by cheque as the charity has a trustee business account which doesn’t have a credit card and has 2 signortories. We had purchased goods from this person with no issues in the past and had no reason to think the same wouldn’t happen.

A year on only 5 of the 100 were sent and we were told to f**k off via email.

We thought the bank might offer some protection as we have a contract for the items/agreement but they said there is nothing new they can do. Is this correct? It’s lloyds bank. A friend works for a different bank and said they can trigger something if goods haven’t been received. A legal friend said it would cost £250 to go to court, we wouldn’t need to attend. Recently I found out the person has a history of similar fraud and served a short prison sentence for it.

Is there anyway of avoiding going to court? The idea of spending £250 is daunting as the charity is small but its £1000 of charity money taken. I wish we had a credit card as we had more security that way but is there anything the bank can do? The lady we spoke to there seemed unsure but said there was nothing they could do