The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Embezzler forced to sell daughter’ s final resting place
Ex-councillor lost home where murder victim’s ashes lay
A former Perthshire community councillor who embezzled almost £130,000 from an elderly aunt has been forced to sell the home where she scattered the ashes of her murdered daughter.
Alice Duncan is facing a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act after milking more than £129,000 from 94-year-old Jean Rossel, who she invited to stay with her at her home in Strathyre 10 years ago.
Duncan, 73, was found guilty of embezzlement in 2019 and ordered to pay
Mrs Rossel £109,000 in compensation.
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Duncan’s solicitor Euan Gosney asked to postpone the hearing, citing concerns about his client’s physical and mental health.
The court heard how Duncan, formerly a respected member of Strathyre Community Council, had been forced to sell her home to raise funds to compensate Mrs
Rossel. The house is where the cremated remains of her daughter Elaine Duncan, who was killed by her partner in 2014, are scattered.
Mr Gosney said: “The property over which her daughter’s ashes were scattered required to be sold in terms of raising the funds for payment of the compensation order so there’s been a downturn in her mental health.”
Aformer Perthshire community councillor facing confiscation proceedings over a £129,000 embezzlement has had to sell the luxury house at which her murdered daughter’s ashes are scattered, a court heard.
Alice Duncan is facing action under the Proceeds of Crime Act after milking the money from an elderly aunt whom she had invited into her Perthshire home.
Duncan, 73, was ordered last year to pay £109,000 in compensation to Jean Rossel, 94. Another £20,000 had, by then, already been repaid.
Duncan, of Strathyre, Perthshire, was found guilty by a jury in 2019 of the embezzlement.
Sentence had been deferred for repayment and Falkirk Sheriff Court was told yesterday the Crown is seeking another £57,000 from Duncan.
The court heard that in a cruel twist, in April 2014, Duncan’s daughter, Elaine, 46, was murdered in Newmilns, Ayrshire, by her abusive partner James Morely – later jailed for life.
Her solicitor Euan Gosney asked for a postponement of a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which had been set for later this month because selling the last resting place of her tragic daughter’s cremated remains had shaken Duncan’s mental state.
He said he had concerns about Duncan’s health and her ability to provide instructions.
He said: “In 2014 her daughter was murdered. That enough might have been the reason for her decreased mental health but there have been further difficulties – the property over which her daughter’s ashes were scattered required to be sold in terms of raising the funds for payment of the compensation order so there’s been a downturn in her mental health.”
Mr Gosney said a psychiatric report on Duncan had already revealed she suffered from depression and anxiety.
Last year the court was told the sale of Duncan’s home on Keip Road, Strathyre, had raised nearly £246,500.
Duncan’s victim Mrs Rossel moved from the south of England to Perthshire 10 years ago with her husband Frans after selling their bungalow in Sussex. Mr Rossel was deemed too frail to move into Duncan’s home and went straight into a care home where he died.
Mrs Rossel also went initially into the nursing home, where Duncan turned up with two solicitors “and it was discussed that she’d be taking over” her financial affairs.
Mrs Rossel said in evidence: “Alice had charge of my pension book. Because I trusted her I didn’t take any observations at all of what was going on.”
After Frans died in October 2014 and the undertaker’s bill arrived, Mrs Rossel found all the money from the sale of their bungalow had gone, together with other savings.