A TRUSTED financial worker is facing a prison sentence after she embezzled £180,000 from a leading Glasgow law firm.

 

Purchase ledger supervisor Teresa Kidd, 44, pocketed the funds from her unsuspecting employers at Maclay Murray and Spens LLP, where she had worked for more than 20 years.

Kidd duped bosses into approving the paperwork they thought detailed cash being used to pay for the services of advocates but instead was paying the money into accounts owned by her and her then partner.

The grandmother, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, pleaded guilty yesterday at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £178,696 from the firm based in St Vincent Street between October 2006 and November 2011.

Sheriff John McCormick told her: "This was a complex fraud perpetrated repeatedly by a trusted employee at a firm of solicitors in Glasgow over a period of some five years"

Placing her in custody ahead of her sentencing next month, he added: "A custodial sentence is almost inevitable."

The court heard Kidd joined the company in 1987 where she became a trusted member of staff and was promoted to purchase ledger supervisor.

Procurator fiscal depute Lesley Chambers told the court: "As such she was responsible for making payments to creditors, clients and other beneficiaries using money withdrawn from the corporate bank account of Maclay Murray and Spens."

The court was told Kidd was in charge of staff within the purchase ledger team.

Mrs Chambers said that cash paid out would be drawn up on a "purchase run document" with a list of creditors, the amounts paid and the relevant bank details.

This was signed off by the financial controller who carried out random sample checks on outgoing payments.

A senior member of staff would check that the amounts tallied up with the outgoing details.

The court was told: "Faculty services limited regularly provide the service of advocates to Maclay Murray and Spens and as such they would subsequently submit invoices to them.

"The invoices to them were typically for a four-figure sum although in this particular case sometimes they rose to £10,000 and £11,000."

Mrs Chambers said that for some reason, unlike most invoices, those submitted by the faculty services did not include their bank details and employees had to manually input the details.

Kidd exploited it and only targeted invoices relating to the faculty services to carry out her crime, the court heard.

She "double submitted" invoices to the law firm, one with the correct bank details so the cash was paid to faculty services, and a second invoice with her personal bank details.

Mrs Chambers added: "This practise of double submitting came to light on January 12, 2012."