Drug mum jailed for £372k scam that cost 92 jobs
A MOTHER has been jailed for three years for pocketing almost £400,000 from bosses in a scam that led to colleagues being made redundant.
Kerryanne Clarke, 38, transferred funds from Elmwood Construction Services in Glasgow into her personal accounts in more than 360 transactions.
She made duplicate payments for the firm but, instead of paying the intended recipient twice, she transferred cash to her own accounts. Clarke – who funded a drug habit with the money – did not change the name of the intended recipients but manually altered the account details.
Around Christmas 2014, 92 employees were made redundant as a result of the fraud.
She pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £372,163 between September 2010 and July 2014.
Yesterday, sheriff Paul Crozier jailed her for three years – reduced from four – ‘standing the gravity of this offence’.
The court heard that the firm Clarke worked for as a bookkeeper and office manager was a property development company.
She was given access to the safe and was authorised to make payments to external companies using online banking and cheques.
She was employed in 2003 and resigned from the company in July 2014 – before her crimes came to light.
In April 2012, the director of the company noticed Clarke was not completing her full working hours.
He decided to take the online bank facilities away from her, meaning that she could not make payments to third parties but could make inter-company transactions.
She handed in her resignation letter in June 2014 but failed to give documentation that was asked of her before she left a couple of weeks later.
After Clarke’s departure, discrepancies were found including a company ostensibly being
‘Gravity of this offence’
paid £1,022 twice but confirming it had received only one payment.
Bosses tried to track her down and eventually she contacted one via Facebook but no explanation was given and she did not reply 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 over 360 transactions.
She even used a director’s bank authenticator without his knowledge.
The police were contacted but Clarke made no comment during an interview.
Defence lawyer Ryan Sloan told the court that Elmwood Construction Services has since gone into liquidation. He said Clarke, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, has two young children and a drug problem.