A CROOKED accountant who stole from a family firm has today escaped jail.

Douglas McAllister was at Glasgow Sheriff Court today to receive his sentence after pleading guilty to embezzling almost £43,000 from Mandors fabric store.

The 48-year-old only dodged prison because he has borrowed cash to pay back the money he stole.

As exclusively told in the Evening Times, McAllister used the company credit card to treat his mistress, a fellow employee.

And he left their sex tapes behind in the his office after he was sacked.
The married father-of-three, who plays the organ at his church, kept his head down and eyes lowered as Sheriff Kenneth Hogg handed down his sentence.

READ MORE: Accountant embezzled £43,000 from respected Glasgow business

Family members were in court to offer him support as he waited to hear his fate.

McAllister let out a relieved sigh as Sheriff Hogg told him he would serve a community-based sentence for what the sheriff called "a particularly mean spirited crime."

Instead of jail, the embezzler will wear a tag for six months, keeping him at his home between 6pm and 6am seven days a week.

He is ordered to complete 275 hours of unpaid work in the community within six months.

And he will be supervised by social work for 18 months.

Sheriff Hogg said: "This was a particularly mean spirited crime.

"You took advantage of a medical crisis in a company to embezzle a significant sum.

"This wasn't an isolated incident; this was a well thought out, premeditated crime.

"Your personal reputation is in tatters and you have let down a significant number of people by your own hand."

McAllister was brought in as financial director of Mandors after Karen Deutsch, one of the owners, suffered an aneurysm.

He exploited her ill health to steal £42,395 from the business, using the company credit card to buy personal items - including a new car.

The 48-year-old also wrote cheques to cash and diverted BACS transfers from customers to his personal account.

READ MORE: Douglas McAllister - Sex, lies and videotape

Mandors, which opened in 1977 on Renfrew Street, is owned by husband and wife Michael and Karen.

Mrs Deutsch attended court to see McAllister sentenced. She and her husband had previously attended on April 6 when McAllister pleaded guilty to his spending spree, from February 20 2012 to November 17 2014.

The accountant, from Eaglesham, has paid back £42,000, which he is believed to have borrowed from supportive family and friends.

At his hearing on April 6, McAllister's defence lawyer, Ross Yuill, said the accountant had embezzled the money to "make himself feel better" as he worked long hours and had a difficult relationship with Mr Deutsch.

However, the Evening Times exclusively revealed that the married father had been using cash to pay for expensive dinners and hotel stays with his mistress, a colleague 14 years his junior.

He used the company credit card to pay for a stay in the Dakota Hotel where he made a seedy sex tape.

This tape was left on a memory card in a video camera McAllister left in his desk. He also had saved the tape to his work laptop.