A Moray credit company worker fabricated a robbery to cover up her embezzlement of her company’s money.
Karen Main, 49, also targeted a large number of customers, fraudulently issued loans and embezzled company funds to a total of £23,000.
At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, she admitted embezzling monies and wasting police time between March 25, 2015 and December 27, 2018.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir described the faked robbery that Main made up to hide her appropriation of cash she was allowed to hold as a float. It was permitted to be up to £6,000.
He told how Main was to be visited by her line manager on December 27 to get her customer list prior to a holiday – when she was supposed to bank her float.
Before her superior arrived, the court was told Main claimed she had left the door open for her as she went out for cigarettes and an intruder had robbed her of £1,985 of the £2,559 pounds she held prior to banking.
“She claimed she saw a man in her hallway, brandishing a pole and demanding money.” Mr Weir said.
He added that she threw some cash and coins at the robber, and she was then knocked unconscious by him. A neighbour found her with a head injury and she was taken to hospital.
Mr Weir went on: “An extensive police inquiry was instigated with house to house inquiries and checking of CCTV footage. A significant number of officers were involved and detectives spent many hours with Main. She had ample opportunity to come forward and admit her wrongdoing.”
Main, of Keith Road, Burghead, who had worked for Provident UK for 20 years, resigned from the company shortly after.
Mr Weir said that Main had used three methods of obtaining cash because she had got into “significant financial difficulties.”
“She would issue a loan without the customer’s knowledge and on occasions at a later date claim it had been issued accidentally. The second was to offer a cash reward to a customer if they took part in a fictitious training scheme.
“The third was to utilise friendships with the customer and abuse her position of trust to persuade them to take out a loan on her behalf to help out of financial difficulties.”
Mr Weir said that she made arrangements that he holiday cover agent would not visit those customers who had been her victims by insisting they pay her in advance.
When the company changed their procedures in July 2018, Main would persuade clients to take out a loan on her behalf, or a larger one than planned and she would pay her part back, Mr Weir went on.
“Or she would take out a loan on their part and then phone them to say she accidentally increased the size of the loan. All in all, she did pay back a lot of the interest and capital on the loans. None of the customers are out of pocket, only Provident UK.” Mr Weir said.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence to May 6 for a background report, personal appearance and a restriction of liberty order assessment.
Defence solicitor Grant Daglish reserved his comments until then.
