A heartless thief who pocketed nearly £40,000 from her own mother has been told she faces jail.
Pearl Dewar used frail Jane Gall’s bank account as if it was her own for six years.
Between January 2007 and November 2013 Dewar was tasked with paying her mum’s bills, doing her shopping and distributing her cash.
Over almost seven years Dewar withdrew £109,000 from her mum’s account.
But, a large proportion of that never reached her housebound mother as Dewar pocketed the money so she could avoid “a trip to the bank”.
Last week Dewar went on trial at Elgin Sheriff Court accused of stealing £82,000 from the pensioner.
She denied the allegations and insisted the missing money was down to her mother’s “ridiculous” spending habits and lavishing attention on guests.
The former teacher also branded her mum a liar for claiming she never received the money.
But the jury of eight women and six men found her guilty of taking £39,000 from the 89-year-old after three hours of deliberations.
Throughout the trial fiscal depute Kevin Corrins argued Dewar had changed her position since being interviewed by the police.
He said she could not be trusted to have told the “whole truth” in her evidence.
Dewar clasped her hands and showed no emotion as the verdict was read out. Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov told the 63-year-old a prison sentence was “upper most” in her mind due to the amount of money involved.
The sheriff also told her to begin making efforts to repay what she had taken.
Dewar, of Seafield Street in Portknockie, previously worked in Peterhead Prison helping prisoners learn how to balance their budgets after their release.
Defence agent Bill Adam attempted to convince the jury that Dewar was only guilty of poor record keeping from the hundreds of shopping trips she made – and said she should be given “the benefit of the doubt”.
He said: “She should have kept records and a better track of things. In evidence she said she maybe got it wrong. You can’t convict someone of a serious charge for getting it wrong.
“Over a seven-year period there’s a lot of shopping. You can understand someone getting it wrong.”
Sentence was deferred until January 19 for reports to be prepared.
