Accounts boss stole £18k to pay off debts

AN ACCOUNTS manager with JB Foods, faced with debts of £30,000, took almost £18,000 in cash from her employers.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, Gillian Taylor, 45, of the city's Dumbryden Gardens, was ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.

She had pleaded guilty to embezzling 17,844.26 from JB Foods (Scotland) Ltd in Loanhead between April 22 and November 16 last year.

Defence solicitor Jim Stephenson said his client had debts of 30,000. The money she took was in bags handed in by delivery drivers.

"She took the money, stupidly thinking she could get a loan and repay it," he said.

Taylor, he added, was trying to repay the company at the rate of 100 a month.

Sheriff Mhairi Stephen said that a custodial sentence had to be considered, but since Taylor was a first offender and was repaying the money, she would impose community service.