Church cash embezzler is spared prison

A WOMAN who swindled £34,000 from an Edinburgh church while she was treasurer wept as she was spared a jail sentence.

Sheriff Celia Sanderson told Rosemary Reid, 56, what she had done was "unforgivable" and that offences such as this "almost always attracted a custodial sentence".

However the sheriff noted Reid, a first offender, had been described by a social worker as having a low risk of re-offending and instead ordered her to carry out 240 hours of community service.

The court heard an investigation was carried out into church accounts irregularities and Reid admitted to police paying a number of cheques into her own account over a period of three years.

Reid, of Redhall Gardens, Edinburgh, admitted embezzling 34,100 from the Kingsknowe Road North church, between 1 June, 2006, and 31 July last year.

Defence agent Dianne Moore said: "Her parents became sick and she had to care for them, she had building work done and she owed them 19,000. In desperation and stupidity she took the money."