Jail warning for insurance agent after £90,000 embezzlement

An insurance agent set up numerous bank accounts to embezzle nearly £100,000 from his employers at industry giant Aviva.

Aaron Williams, from Perth, had nine bank accounts and spent nearly three years funnelling the company’s cash into his own pocket.

Williams, 29, was carrying out fake refunds to customers and putting the money into his own accounts between 2012 and 2015.

He was eventually caught when a colleague noticed a payment was being made to a suspicious-looking account which did not appear to be linked to the customer involved.

The company called in its main investigator because of the scale of the fraud and Williams was initially charged with embezzling more than £117,000.

Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court, he was warned he faces jail after he admitted embezzling £90,000.

Depute fiscal Tina Dickie said: “He was employed as a customer service adviser at Aviva. As part of his duties he was responsible for processing insurance premium refunds.

“The matter came to light through Stephanie Glover, who was a colleague. She became suspicious of a premium refund raised by the accused.

“She noticed a refund authorised by the accused had been sent to a different bank account from an earlier payment made to the same customer.

“She questioned the accused and reported the circumstances to the group investigations team and forensic audit department.”

The court heard Aviva had managed to recover £51,938.32 from Williams since his arrest.

Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence until next month.