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Accounting discrepancy reveals charity manager’s £40,000 embezzlement scheme
A manager who embezzled just over £40,000 from vulnerable residents at a social care charity has been jailed for 12 months.
Violet Connor67, from Glenrothes, stole money from the bank accounts of Sense Scotland users over a three-year period.
She was sentenced at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after admitting embezzling money from residents between April 2019 and December 2022.
Helen NisbetProcurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: “This crime was committed against some of the most vulnerable in our community and was a very serious breach of trust.
“We will always prosecute where there is evidence to do so.”
The court heard that Connor, who worked as a site manager at Sense Scotland, was authorised to withdraw precise amounts of money for 10 users of the service.
She would then record the transaction on a manual paper-based recording system at the charity, which cares for vulnerable adults and children facing challenges such as deafness, blindness or learning difficulties.
These withdrawals usually happened once or twice a month.
In October 2022, Connor was on compassionate leave following a family bereavement and was due to retire two months later.
However, an accounting discrepancy was noticed while his interim replacement was learning the process of balancing financial portfolios for service users supervised by the accused.
Staff at the company were alerted and an internal inquiry later revealed that Connor had made excessive withdrawals, totaling £40,060, from residents’ accounts.
She will now be subject to confiscation action under the Proceeds of Crime legislation.