Crook used his former accountant’s bank details at pawn shop

An Airdrie fraudster used someone else’s bank details to buy back his expensive whisky collection from a city centre pawn shop.

James McAuley, of Bell Street, profited from the card details of his former accountant to buy back the bottles of booze after a dispute.

The 42- year- old appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court last week, where he admitted to obtaining the items back by fraud.

The self–employed project manager used the card details of a woman employed by B-Able Business Services Ltd, an accountancy and bookkeeping firm based in Clydebank, after he obtained it during another transaction in 2016.

McAuley had been driving in Aberdeen in March of that year when he suffered a mechanical fault and was forced to take the vehicle in to a garage for repairs.

Monies were supposed to have been paid into McAuley’s account, but the account didn’t have enough funds to cover the repair bill and the woman gave him her own card details over the phone to pay for the work.

A short time later he emailed the firm to notify them that the business agreement was at an end.

Last year, the female complainer spotted a payment of £1380 to a Cash Converters store in an online bank statement.

The matter was then reported to police who made enquiries and discovered that the fraudulent transaction had been made by McAuley, a frequent customer of the Stirling shop, to re–claim his collection of 12 bottles of whisky and a chop saw.

Fiscal depute Lindsey Brooks told the court: “He bought the items back using the witness’s card details. It was done over the phone.

“He had done a buy-back arrangement with Cash Converters.”

Police eventually traced the crime back to McAuley thanks to the witness at Cash Converters.

Defending, Paul Nicolson revealed McAuley had regularly handed his booze haul over to pawn shops when in need of cash.

Mr Nicolson said: “He is a collector of valuable bottles of whisky and uses that when his funds are low.

“He had been let down and he was in some dispute with the witness. “In anger he committed this offence. “The party who suffered the loss is Cash Converters.”

Sheriff William Gilchrist placed McAuley on a community payback order which will see him carry out 120 hours of unpaid work within the next six months.