Embezzler of £40,000 likely facing prison

Arbroath woman committed the fraud while working as a paralegal

A trusted law firm paralegal who embezzled more than £40,000 from the estate of her ex-husband’s great aunt was yesterday warned she faces prison – even though her victims do not want her locked up.

Alison Jackson’s huge scam was only uncovered when her firm, Thornton’s, one of the largest legal firms in Scotland, audited the accounts of her clients.

They discovered one deceased client’s executry account had paid for two separate funerals.

Jackson later admitted she had used the cash from another grieving family to pay the funeral of Lillian Grant, the family member she went on to steal the huge sum of cash from.

A police probe then examined Jackson’s bank accounts and it emerged she had taken repeated sums – ranging from £20 to £2,000 – from Mrs Grant’s bank account and transferred it straight into her own.

She had been granted power of attorney and put in charge of Mrs Grant’s finances in 2006 when the OAP began to suffer from dementia.

Jackson retained control over her money until her death in 2012 – and in 2013 handed £1,500 to her ex-husband telling him that was all that was left in the estate.

But in reality there was tens of thousands of pounds in cash sitting there, which Jackson used to pay off spiralling payday loan debts on a monthly basis.

She also failed to tell the Cadbury’s pension scheme, of which Mrs Grant was a member thanks to her late husband’s work for the chocolate firm, that she had died – and continued to have cash from her pension paid in and then transferred on to her for almost three years after her death.

Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court that in all Jackson stole £56,119.32 – £3,073.75 from Thornton’s, £40,403.71 from Mrs Grant’s estate and £12,641.86 from Cadbury’s.

Jackson, 44, of Shepherd Lane, Arbroath, pleaded guilty on indictment to two charges of embezzlement and one of fraud.

Solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin, defending, said Jackson had already paid back £21,000 of the cash and urged the court to let Jackson remain at liberty to continue paying the money back.

And he added that the family of Mrs Grant, who would have inherited her estate, had made it clear they did not want Jackson to go to prison due to the effect it would have on her family.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentence until next month for the Crown to confirm how much cash had been repaid to the family.

He added: “It is looking increasingly like a custodial sentence here – but the repayments would impact on the size of that sentence.”

Alison Jackson outside Dundee Sheriff Court.