Guilty, mother who embezzled £92,000 to pay for IVF twins
Book-keeper splashed cash on keeping up lavish lifestyle
A WOMAN embezzled £92,000 from her bosses to fund IVF treatment that helped her give birth to twins.
Debbie Stevenson, 37, started stealing cash from the company where she worked as a bookkeeper in August 2014.
The mother of three defrauded packaging firm Pitreavie Group in Glenrothes, Fife, until January 2017.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court earlier this week, she admitted embezzling £92,181.64.
Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist deferred sentence for three weeks to allow for assessment of the suitability of Stevenson’s home for a curfew order.
She claimed the money had funded fertility treatment, involving trips to Greece, before she gave birth to twins in 2015.
But Pitreavie Group bosses last night said she led a ‘lavish lifestyle’, including a sports car, trips abroad and attending a Manchester United football match.
A company spokesman said: ‘Our observations were the IVF cost £10,000. She was happy to talk about it to her colleagues in the accounts department. If she had only come to us at the time, we would have done what we could to have helped her with the IVF.
‘If she was struggling to have a family, we would have gladly helped her. But there was a very lavish lifestyle going on there.
‘It was all over Facebook, her holidays to New York and for her son’s 16th birthday she took her son and a friend down to Old Trafford to the hospitality there, which cost £1,800 per person.
‘She said she got a big scratch card win, which explained why she was able to do that.’
He added: ‘She turned up one day in an Audi TT. If you look back, the signs were all there but it’s something we’d never experienced as a business. You don’t think someone would be stealing from you. It was averaging £5,000-£6,000 per month.’
The fraud was discovered only after the firm hired a new finance manager. The spokesman said: ‘She discovered discrepancies and we contacted the police.’
In court, Stevenson’s solicitor Scott McKenzie said: ‘She started embezzling from the company primarily to fund IVF treatment.’
But he conceded her offending continued after the twins, now two-and-a-half, were born.
Stevenson’s husband Michael was training to be an engineer. Mr McKenzie said: ‘She did end up under significant financial pressure.’
According to Mr Stevenson’s social media page, the couple married in 2012 and lived in Cardenden, Fife.
It is understood they moved to Boldon Colliery, Tyne and Wear, last year.
Mr McKenzie said Stevenson was ashamed of her behaviour, adding: ‘She does realise the company suffered financial losses. She appreciates this is not a trivial offence.’
He said she posed a low risk of reoffending and stressed the potential impact on the family if she was jailed. He added: ‘As far as the twins are concerned, there is no familial support in the area. Her husband works full-time. He would have to give up work to look after the children.’
Neither Stevenson nor her family wished to comment yesterday.
‘If you look back, the signs were all there’