Embezzler admits stealing £726,000 from charity trusts

Documents falsified so that cash would go to her and her husband

AN assistant manager at a firm of tax advisers has admitted embezzling more than £726,000 from trusts that were set up to help charities.

Susan McMahon, 34, exploited her position as assistant manager in the department that runs charitable activities at Grant Thornton UK, which has offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh and across the UK.

She falsified documents so her superiors would authorise cheques believing the trustees had agreed the money would go to various beneficiaries, including the Save the Children charity. But instead of going where the trustees planned, she pocketed the cash herself, transferring funds into accounts held by her and her husband.

McMahon, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling £726,765 between May 2006 and May 2013.

She was caught in April 2013 when one of the partners in the firm authorised a cheque for £15,000 to be paid to Sports University Scotland (SUS), an Aberdeen charity. But he became suspicious because he thought the project that the funds had been approved for did not fit with the purpose of the charity.

He carried out checks with the Margaret Murdoch Charitable Trust which Mrs McMahon claimed had authorised the payment and discovered no such payment had been approved.

Procurator fiscal depute Pauline Henderson said: “The trustees had not approved a £15,000 payment to SUS. The minutes he had been presented with by the accused suggesting the trustees had authorised a payment had been doctored and were quite different to the minutes held on the company’s database.

“And further, the payee on the cheques made out to SUS had been changed to the name of Susan McMahon.”

The court was told that of the 12 to 15 trusts administered by McMahon, six had had funds belonging to them fraudulently removed and paid out to her or her husband’s accounts.

The trusts that lost money were the Margaret Murdoch Charitable Trust, The Morrison Foundation, Mr J Anderson, Mrs J Anderson, Mrs JMC Smith and Adam Boyd.

McMahon had even attended Margaret Murdoch Charitable Trust meetings and made notes which were sent to the chairman of the trustees for approval.

Mrs Henderson said: “The accused induced the authorised signatories to sign the cheques, which were subsequently paid fraudulently into one of the accounts by amending or manipulating the supporting documents.”

The court heard she compiled a “fictitious list” of annual payments making it look as though payments had gone to genuine charities.

A total of £350,300 was embezzled from the Margaret Murdoch Charitable Trust alone. The Morrison Foundation had £298,225 taken from it by McMahon who looked after their cash in the same way as the other trusts.

Mrs Henderson said: “The accused exploited her position as the only member of staff within the trusts department and the trust placed in her by her employers.

“And, she deliberately manipulated Grant Thornton’s processes and procedures.”

The court heard no money has been repaid.

Sheriff Alan Miller deferred sentence on McMahon until next month and remanded her in custody.

‘‘ The accused induced authorised signatories to sign cheques, which went into her account