Council worker siphoned off £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash

Aberdeen City Council team leader Jack Downie used his position to pay cash into the bank accounts of his elderly mother and a male friend and buy cars, designer watches and luxury holidays.

But his defence counsel claimed Downie’s behaviour was a result of a bipolar disorder.

He had been responsible for processing lump-sum payments to retiring teachers.

But Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday he started forging documents and signatures to deposit 15 separate cash sums into the bank accounts over a four-year period while working within the education, culture and sport department. He paid £278,000 into the account of his mother Mary, now 80, and another £20,000 into another account in her name.

Downie, 45, also transferred £89,000 into the bank account of Berwickshire horse trainer Richard Telford, 47, who the court heard he regarded as “the brother he never had”.

Defence counsel Louise Moll QC said: “Mr Downie bought him a Range Rover for £32,000, a Rolex watch, several holidays and other treats.

“It was perfectly clear to Richard Telford that Jack Downie was vulnerable and lacking self-esteem and he played on that.”

Downie – who was paid a salary of £32,000 – was caught after official documents relating to the embezzled sums began to arrive at a woman’s house.

He had been forging the signature of the council’s director of finance and using national insurance numbers of real teachers employed by the city council.

Fiscal depute Karen Dow said when he was asked about irregularities by senior members of staff at the council, he appeared “nervous, and was sweating profusely”.

When he failed to turn up to work for meetings over discrepancies in the accounts, claiming he was ill, he was suspended from his post.

An internal audit revealed what Downie – who had worked for the council since 1987 – had done and he immediately admitted his guilt to a colleague.

Police then found evidence of the scam in financial documents at his home.

After being charged he was admitted to the Royal Cornhill Hospital with mental health problems.

Mary Downie and Richard Telford were previously charged in relation to the swindled cash but the allegations were later dropped by the Crown.

Last month, Downie admitted embezzling a total of £386,004.12 between August 2006 and September 2010.

Sentencing yesterday, Sheriff Graeme Napier said he had no option but to sentence Downie to custody.