Shire hotel manager embezzled £15k
A 28-year-old man embezzled more than £15,000 in less than a year while employed as manager at a Perthshire hotel.
Jamie Webb pocketed the cash while he ran up-market Dalmunzie Castle Hotel in Spittal of Glenshee, north of Blairgowrie.
The 17-bedroom former baronial mansion, which has its own golf course, dates back to the early 16th Century.
Lawyer David Holmes tendered a guilty plea on his client’s behalf at Perth Sheriff Court to embezzling £15,486 between March 28, 2015, and February 12, 2016.
The accused, who didn’t appear personally, also admitted fraudulently obtaining repairs costing almost £1000 from AP DC Autos, Logie Road, Kirriemuir, on February 11 last year.
Webb, who previously lived at Sutton Avenue in Colburn, a small town in North Yorkshire, pretended he had authority to present a business cheque, which was accepted, to the company to pay the bill.
Mr Holmes said that in view of the amount of cash detailed in the first charge, a background report would be needed.
Sheriff Gillian Wade deferred sentence until September 27 and ordered a Community Justice Social Work report on the accused.
He has been ordered to appear personally on that date.
He was bailed to c/o The Halfway Inn, Corfe Castle, Dorset.
Not guilty pleas were accepted to three other embezzlement and fraud charges.
It had been alleged that on January 18, 2016, at the hotel, he tried to refund a quantity of cash to his own personal bank account and attempted to embezzle £3090.
Two further charges claimed that on February 8, 2016, and Dutch firm Mecanoo’s preferred design between February 6 and 12, 2016, at the hotel, he pretended that bank account details he provided were those of Dalmunzie Castle but, in fact, they related to his own personal account.
As a result it had been claimed that first £1700 and then £1830 had been transferred to his own account - and that he fraudulently obtained these sums.
Depute fiscal Tina Dickie accepted the not guilty pleas in relation to these three charges.