Insurance agent embezzled £90,000 from his company

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

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

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 out when an eagle-eyed colleague noticed a payment was being made to a suspicious account which did not appear to be linked to the customer involved.

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

At Perth Sheriff Court, Williams was warned he faces jail after he admitted embezzling a reduced figure of £90,000 from the company between November 2012 and May 2015.

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

“The matter came to light through 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.”

The court was told the fraud was reported to the police and that Aviva had managed to recover £51,938.32 from Williams since his arrest.

Williams, from Perth, will be sentenced next month.