Boss hid stolen £35k in family’s accounts
Embezzler’s OAP dad knew nothing of cash she fiddled from firm and stashed in his bank
A TRUSTED manager who stole more than £35,000 from her employers used her elderly father’s bank account as part of her scheme.
Payroll superviser Eleanor Herd, 57, stashed money she filched from Peel Ports Group in various relatives’ accounts.
In a complex scheme she ran for two years, she diverted funds from the firm to five different relatives on 45 occasions.
This included £16,387 in her 79-year-old dad’s bank and £14,915 over 22 transactions into one of her daughter’s accounts.
Herd’s crimes came to light when HMRC queried tax owed by employees and an internal audit revealed what she’d done.
Herd, from Cumbernauld, pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £35,654 at the office at Robertson Street in the city centre between January 2008 and March 2010.
Peel Ports are one of the UK’s largest port operators, with facilities in Liverpool, Clydeport, Dublin and Great Yarmouth.
The company handle more than 12million tons of cargo a year.
The court was told Herd was payroll manager until March 2010 before resigning.
Pat Callander, prosecuting, said: “By late 2011, it appeared that a few former employees of Peel Ports were being contacted by HMRC regarding tax which had not been paid on earnings.
“As a result of a lengthy investigation and detailed audit carried out by the internal group audit, their findings led Peel Ports to believe that the accused had misappropriated £35,654 from them.”
It was discovered that there were 45 instances where money had been diverted out of Peel’s accounts.
The cash had then gone into five bank accounts which belonged to close relatives of Herd.
She stashed £17,915 between her two daughters’ accounts, £351 in her son-in-law’s and £1000 in her husband’s bank.
There were 19 credits made to her father’s account.
He was said to be “genuinely shocked” by the number of transactions made into his bank.
The matter was then reported to the police.
Sheriff Alan MacKenzie deferred sentence until next month for reports and continued Herd’s bail.