Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Mum’s greed for luxury put firm in grubber
A crooked bookkeeper from Carnbroe has been jailed for three years for pocketing almost £400,000 from her bosses that lead to dozens of colleagues being made redundant.
Disgraced mum- of- two Kerryanne Clarke, 38, transferred funds from Elmwood Construction Services Ltd into her personal accounts across more than 360 transactions over a three-and-ahalf-year period, resulting in the family-run business’ liquidation.
She made “duplicate” payments but instead of paying the intended recipient twice, she slyly transferred cash to her own accounts.
Cunning Clarke – who funded her drug habit with the illegal cash – kept the details of where the money was meant to be paid but manually changed the account details.
Around Christmas 2014, 92 employees were made redundant as a result of her deception.
She pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month to embezzling £372,163 between September 2010 and July 2014.
And last week Sheriff Paul Crozier jailed Clarke for three years, reduced from four, “standing the gravity of this offence”.
The court heard Clarke was given access to the safe at Elmwood Construction Services Ltd and was authorised to make payments to external companies using online banking and cheques.
She was employed in 2003 and resigned in July 2014 – before her crimes came to light.
In April 2012, the director of the company noticed Clarke wasn’t completing her full working hours.
He decided to take the online bank facilities away from her meaning she couldn’t make payments to third parties but could make inter-company transactions.
Clarke resigned in June 2014 but failed to give documentation that was asked of her before leaving the company a couple of weeks later.
After Clarke’s departure, discrepancies were found, including a company being paid £1022 twice – but confirmed they only received one payment.
Bosses tried to track her down and eventually she contacted one via Facebook but no explanation was given and she never replied to a letter or email sent to her.
Looking at company accounts it became clear that £ 372,163 had been paid in to four different accounts Clarke held across 360 transactions. She even used a director’s bank authenticator without his knowledge.
A spokesperson for Elmwood told the Advertiser : “The significant sums of money she [Clarke] embezzled over a threeanda- half year period from related group companies was the significant contributing factor for the starvation of cash flow and the ultimate failure of the company. This resulted in 92 people losing their jobs.
“We managed to offer new employment through one of our other trading companies for approximately half of the employees which at the time included Mrs Clarke.
“It later transpired she continued to embezzle money until a matter of days before she resigned from her position.
“Mrs Clarke was a highly trusted employee. This position of trust was abused to the greatest extent, for personal gain to satisfy her greed and desire for a luxury lifestyle.
“When we discovered the extent of stolen money our first thought was of the companies and jobs that may not have been lost had we access to that liquidity.
“Elmwood (Glasgow) Ltd was established in 1972 by the current owner’s father.
“The personal impact of the failed company has been, and continues to be, devastating – not just for the owner, but for all the hard-working, dedicated team of employees that remain here.”
Personal impact of failed company has been and continues to be devastating