A chip shop worker who was caught pocketing her employer’s cash in a police sting operation will be sentenced next month.
Barbara Mackay had gone to trial denying she was a thief and had embezzled £5,550 from Lorimer’s Family Restaurant on Longman Road in Inverness between May and July last year.
But the 48-year-old of Mackay Road changed her plea yesterday to guilty of embezzling £956.70p from the business on July 9, the day she went to the bank to deposit three bags of takings.
The court heard that when she returned to the restaurant, she had one bag of takings in her handbag and had deposited only two.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence for a background report until September 21 and defence lawyer Pauline Chapman reserved her comments until then.
On the first day of Macrae’s trial last month, Inverness Sheriff Court heard that suspicion fell on Macrae after four days of takings had gone missing in the previous two months.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that serial numbers were recorded and the Royal Bank of Scotland was tipped off before Macrae went to the premises to make a deposit.
As a supervisor with Lorimer’s, Macrae had authority to bank cash every two or three days.
Lorimer’s financial controller Catherine Grant told the court she noticed that several days takings were missing when doing a routine check of bank statements and other paperwork.
“Only a limited number of people were taking money to the bank so I checked who was responsible for the particular days of missing takings. For May 4, May 28, June 3 and June 21, Barbara was the common denominator.
“The director of the company, Barry Larsen told me to inform the police and I went to see them with three days of takings. The serial numbers were recorded, the three bags put back in the safe and the following day, July 9, Barbara took them to the bank.
“She was filmed on CCTV and only two bags were deposited.” Mrs Grant told Sheriff Margaret Neilson.
