Dundee woman jailed after scamming £60,000 from her bosses
A bookkeeper from Dundee who scammed tens of thousands of pounds from the firm where she worked and then blew it on cars, foreign holidays and jewellery has been jailed for 18 months.
Her trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard that company owner Raymond Gloag was left "hurt" when the fraud came to light.
Bryceland had been left to run the financial side of the business - with Mr Gloag even signing blank cheques to allow Bryceland to pay bills.
But the 50-year-old abused that trust - and used the cheques to pay cash into her own bank account.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher told Bryceland: "You simply took advantage of a surprising degree of naivety on the part of your employer."
Fiscal depute Donna Brown told the court the scam was "amateurish" and was easily detected after she left the company in 2010.
She said: "The accused was employed as a bookkeeper for around 10 years at the company. The business grew to having 50 staff by 2007 with its highest profit being £150,000. But by 2010 the company had lost £200,000 and was placed in administration. The Crown does not suggest she was responsible for the company being put in administration but she abused the position of trust for own personal gain. She transferred money to her own bank accounts. The amateur nature of the embezzlement came to light when new accountants looked at records and when her bank accounts were examined later. She made cheques out payable to herself which she was able to do given how trusted she was by Mr Gloag. He would sign his name to a number of blank cheques. What is apparent is both Mr Gloag and the accused were in over their heads running a company that had grown so quickly. The £60,000 was used to buy cars, holidays and jewellery. To date no money has been repaid.”
Bryceland, 50, of Dundee, had denied embezzling £192,000 from the firm.
But on the third day of her trial, the Crown accepted her guilty plea to embezzling the lesser sum of £60,000 from the company between July 2007 and December 2008.
Defence advocate Grant Markie asked the Sheriff to impose a non-custodial sentence as any period of imprisonment would have a detrimental effect on both her and the company she now worked for, where she was extremely highly regarded, he said.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher jailed Bryceland for 18 months, telling her: “This was a very serious offence. It was obviously worked out and planned.
“It was also sophisticated enough for you to avoid suspicion on the part of your employer, although it didn’t escape the accountants.
“A custodial sentence is appropriate and is the only method of dealing with this matter.”