Lanarkshire woman stole cash to fund drug habit

A woman who stole more than £22,000 from a company who provide eye care to vulnerable people used some of the cash to fund her drug habit.

Author: Natalie CrawfordPublished 11th Oct 2022

A woman who stole more than £22,000 from a company who provide eye care to vulnerable people used some of the cash to fund her drug habit.

Louise Creighton, 41, embezzled the cash from Visioncall Limited in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, between November 2016 and October 2017.

Creighton, of Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, - in her private sales team role - created bogus refunds which she transferred to her own bank account.

Guilty plea

She also sent invoices to care homes or families of patients with bank details amended to her own.

Creighton was snared after concerns by a care home were raised about the bank details provided which sparked an internal probe.

Creighton pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to a single charge of embezzling £22,768.10.

Sheriff Barry Divers ordered her to do 225 hours of unpaid work at sentencing.

The mum-of-two was also tagged for six months keeping her indoors between 7pm and 7am.

She was also ordered to pay the company £4,500 in compensation and put under supervision for 18 months.

The sheriff told her: "In all the circumstances I am persuaded that there is an alternative to custody but it is a direct alternative to custody and if there are any problems you come back to me and you probably will be going to jail."

"Creighton created false refund reports"

The court heard Creighton joined the company which provides vulnerable residents of care homes with eye examinations and recommendations for glasses in 2013.

Creighton rose through the company before becoming a member of the private sales team in March 2016.

Prosecutor Hannah Terrance said: "In November 2016, she began refunding various amounts of money onto different bank cards with a total of 22 transactions occurring - the last being in October 2017.

"Creighton created false refund reports and processed them through the company credit card machine.

"She marked the documents with reasons such as 'customer deceased' and 'order cancelled by family'.

"Creighton sent invoices to either a care home or family member of a patient and amended the bank details to be credited to her own account rather than the company's account."

In October 2017, a witness from a care home in Dorset reported "concerns" to Visioncall regarding the bank account details listed on an invoice.

The company were able to find that the details given were the same as the one Creighton used for her wages.

Creighton was suspended following a meeting with company heads before she tendered her resignation.

A company audit uncovered 125 invoices with a total company loss of £22,768.10.

Gerry Davanney, defending, told the sentencing: "Her relationship at the time was the motivation for her offending behaviour - it was an abusive relationship.

"She had an abuse towards substances such as cocaine which amounted to a considerable amount at that period of time.

"This was the primary motivation for the sums of money which were embezzled."

"She is now drug free and free from the relationship."

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