Embezzler who took £500k told to pay £140

The sum was sitting in David Dinham’s bank account and was the only cash found by police who investigated his financial affairs, a court heard yesterday. Dinham has already repaid £112,000, but what happened to the remaining £390,000 of taxpayers’ money now seems certain to remain a mystery.

The 33-year-old from Edinburgh, who worked as chief information officer at the NLS, was jailed for two years this summer for embezzling the cash.

A confiscation hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday heard that only a fraction of the missing money had been found by police investigators.

Fiscal depute Karen Rollo told the court that a civil case against Dinham by the NLS had been concluded with £112,613 repaid.

She said: “This leaves approximately £390,000. However, the Lothian and Borders Police have done an investigation and found he has £140 remaining in an HSBC bank account.

“Quite rightly, any moneys recovered should be returned to the complainer.”

Sheriff Frank Crowe agreed to take the money from Dinham.

He said: “There has been a civil action and the main bulk of the estate has gone back to the National Library. I will make a confiscation order of £140.” The court had previously heard that Dinham awarded his own IT company library contracts worth more than £240,000 during a sophisticated scam.

In fits of “mania”, the Australian splashed out another £260,000 on goods, using a government credit card he was entrusted with by his employers.

It emerged that Dinham, who lived in Edinburgh at the time, had such seniority his dealings were not checked by NLS chiefs.