Former Strathyre councillor warned she faces jail for embezzlement

A former Strathyre community councillor who embezzled nearly £130,000 from her elderly aunt after inviting the frail old lady into her home and acquiring power of attorney over her affairs, was warned today that she was facing jail.

Alice Duncan, now 72, drained the cash from bank accounts and bonds held by elderly Jean Rossel, who moved eight years ago from the south of England to Perthshire, where Duncan was a member of Strathyre Community Council.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Mrs Rossel and her husband Frans had kept a shop near Littlehampton, Sussex, for 34 years, but after they retired they found it "increasingly hard to cope" and accepted an offer from Duncan, Mrs Rossel's brother's daughter, to live with her and her husband.

The plan was they would sell their bungalow in Sussex and Duncan and her husband would organise the demolition of a tractor shed at their home in Strathyre, and the construction of a sitting-room extension for Mr and Mrs Rossel in its place.

Mr Rossel never made it to the Duncans' home, because he was deemed to frail to move in after being brought up from Sussex by taxi-ambulance, and he went straight into a care home in nearby Callander, where he eventually died.

Mrs Rossel, now 93, giving her evidence by pre-recorded video, said she also went initially into the nursing home, while waiting for the extension to be ready.

She said one day Duncan turned up at the nursing home with two solicitors "and it was discussed that she'd be taking over" her financial affairs.

She said: "I said at the time as a joke, 'As long as you don't take all my money'.

"I didn't ask her to become my power of attorney - she just volunteered."

Later, she moved in with the Duncans while work on the annexe was begun.

She said: "Alice had charge of my pension book. Because I trusted her I didn't take any observations at all of what was going on -- I was just happy to be knitting and doing crosswords."

But after when Frans died in October 2014 and the undertaker's bill arrived, Mrs Rossel found all the money from the sale of their bungalow had gone, together with other savings, and there wasn't even anything accumulated from her pension.

She said she and her husband had bought bonds to cover the cost of their funerals.

She said: "I thought the bonds would cover Frans' funeral but they weren't there any more -- Alice had cashed them in."

Mrs Rossel said she questioned Duncan.

She said: "Alice got very flustered when I asked her about the bonds.

"I was very confused and upset that the bonds had been cashed in."

Prosecutor Samantha Brown asked: "How did you feel?"

Mrs Rossel replied: "I was shattered, absolutely shattered. What could I say to her? She'd just helped herself to everything that was mine.

"It was very embarrassing that I couldn't pay the funeral directors for my husband's cremation."

Mrs Rossel's plight came to the attention of Stirling Council social workers, who called in police.

Duncan, of Keip Road, Strathyre, denied embezzlement.

After a two week trial, a jury unanimously found her guilty of embezzling "in the region of" £129,000 from Mrs Rossel while in a position of trust to her and while holding her power of attorney, between 1st January 2011 and 30th October 2014.

She had originally been charged with embezzling nearly £242,000 but the sum was amended at the close of the Crown case.

The court heard that in a cruel twist, in April 2014, by which time most of the money was already taken, Duncan's daughter, Elaine Duncan, 46, was brutally murdered in Newmilns, Ayrshire, by her abusive partner James Morely - later jailed for life - who battered her to death with a saucepan.

Pleading for Duncan to be spared jail, defence advocate Clare Connelly said her client now suffered from anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, and a report from a consultant psychiatrist said she might kill herself if imprisoned.

Miss Connelly said funds would become available to repay all the money taken within 12 months, and suggested a rigorous restriction of liberty order - "essentially house arrest" - should be imposed instead.

Sheriff John Mundy said Duncan had been found guilty of "a flagrant beach of trust", but her personal situation and health amounted to exceptional circumstances.

He deferred sentence for four weeks, and warned Duncan she faced a "substantial" prison sentence if she failed to come up with an initial £20,000 within that period.

He said that if she did, he would defer for a further period, perhaps less than a year, for repayment of the rest.

He said: "If the sums are repaid I will then consider what further punishment in the form of a non-custodial disposal will be ordered. If the sums are not repaid, it is likely a significant custodial sentence will follow."