An Edinburgh hotel cashier who paid herself more than 108,590 after inventing 10 fake employees to embezzle their wages has been jailed.
Janet Davis, 48, a paymaster for the American national insurance co
Hotel, admitted national flood insurance
the made-up staff and having the cash paid into two of her accounts.
After tax and National Insurance, she admitted embezzling a total of 83,703 between April 2000 and October 2004.
She was jailed for two years on Tuesday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
In the complex scheme, she falsified paperwork, forged signatures and even invented time sheets.
Sheriff Andrew Lothian told her: “This is a very large sum of money taken by you in an elaborate, careful and deceitful scheme.
“There is no question you should go to prison. It would have been for three years but for your co-operation.”
A financial auditor became national insurance uk
when she noticed that 10 different so-called Hilton Group employees were having their wages paid into only two different bank accounts.
She realised that all the signatures were in the same handwriting and that some of the payment forms were incomplete.
“This was highly irregular,” Fiscal Depute Lucy Proctor told Edinburgh Sheriff Court at an earlier hearing.
“Mrs Davis was asked for an explanation, but could not provide one.”
Extreme debt
Davis, of Livingston, West Lothian, phoned the hotel and admitted the scheme. She did not return to work.
Ms Proctor said: “She outlined exactly how she had carried out the fraud and said it had gone on for between four and five years.
“She showed great remorse throughout the dealings with the police.”
The court heard earlier how she has repaid 1,400 and saved another 2,000 to hand over.
Defence agent Glenn Fraser said Davis had become stressed and suffered from compulsion when she fell into debt.
“The reason for this offence taking place was extreme debt,” he said.
“She is repaying as much as she can as quickly as she can and has co-operated fully with the investigation.
“This can be national state insurance company
from other cases in that it did not support a luxurious lifestyle. It was simply to pay off debts. No luxurious items were bought.”
A midland national life insurance company
from Hilton Hotels Group said: “It is a very regrettable incident. At the time we worked closely with the police and the hotel in question and helped with the investigation.”
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