Mum stole around £400k from Glasgow firms while colleagues lost their jobs
A Mum has been locked up for three years for pocketing almost £400,000 from her bosses, at a Glasgow firm, that lead to colleagues being made redundant.
Last updated 16th Feb 2017
A Mum has been locked up for three years for pocketing almost £400,000 from her bosses, at a Glasgow firm, that lead to colleagues being made redundant.
Kerryanne Clarke, 38, transferred funds from Elmwood Construction Services Ltd into her personal accounts in over 360 transactions.
She made “duplicate” payments as a book keeper but instead of paying the intended recipient twice, she transferred cash to her own accounts.
Sneaky Clarke - who funded her drug habit with the illegal money - kept the name of any where the money was meant to be paid but manually changed the account details.
Around Christmas 2014, 92 employees were made redundant as a result.
She pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £372,163 between September 2010 and July 2014.
Yesterday (Thurs) sheriff Paul Crozier jailed her for three years reduced from four “standing the gravity of this offence”.
The court heard the firm is a property development company and Clarke was employed as a book keeper and office manager.
She was given access to the safe and was authorised to make payments to external companies using online banking and cheques.
She was employed in 2003 and resigned in July 2014 - before her crimes came to light.
In April 2012 the director of the company noticed Clakre wasn’t completing her full working hours.
He decided to take the online bank facilities away from her meaning she couldn’t make payments to third parties but could make inter-company transactions.
She handed in her resignation letter in June 2014 but failed to give documentation that was asked of her before she left a couple of weeks later.
After Clarke left discrepancies were found including a company being paid £1,022 twice but confirmed they only received one payment.
Bosses tried to track her down and eventually she contacted one via Facebook but no explanation was given and she never replied to a letter or email sent to her.
Looking at company accounts it became clear that £372,163 had been paid in to four different accounts Clarke held over 360 transactions.
She even used a director’s bank authenticator without his knowledge.
The police were contacted and Clarke made a “no comment” interview.
Defence lawyer Ryan Sloan said the company has since gone into liquidation.
He told the court Clarke has two young children and a drug problem.
It was earlier reported that as a direct result of Clarke’s selfish actions, 92 employees of the company were made redundant.