A teaching assistant has admitted stealing a colleague’s debit card details.
Evelyn Day yesterday admitted fraudulently using the bank card details of Catriona Allan to obtain clothing, books, craft items and stationery worth more than £1,000 from Amazon. The offence happened between November 13 and December 1 last year.
The 48-year-old, of 10 Ullinish, Struan, looked in a colleague’s purse and copied the details of the debit card.
Fiscal Stewart Maciver told Portree Sheriff Court that when Day was first questioned by police, she denied it.
But when it was pointed out to her there were records of the goods being sent from Amazon to her address she came clean.
She said she did not know what made her do it but was short of cash as Christmas approached.
Defence lawyer Hamish Melrose said his client had brought all the money due to court that day for repayment to either the bank or victim.
Day was suspended from her job at Dunvegan School after the offence came to light.
Mr Melrose added: “She is anxious about her employment. It only pays £400 a month but that is enough for the hire purchase on her car.
“She is very remorseful about what she did and is receiving treatment from her GP for stress and panic attacks as well as counselling.”
Sheriff Richard Davidson told Day: “This was a gross breach of trust. Up until then you were no doubt a valuable part of school life. It is essential that the background to what you did is investigated.”
The sheriff deferred sentence until June 6.
