Scots nurse who faced flogging for Saudi murder convicted of fraud for third time

• Lucille McLauchlan admitted card crimes

Lucille McLauchlan from Dundee, who spent more than a year in a Saudi prison for her part in the murder of an Australian nurse and the theft of her credit cards, admitted embarking on a 1,000 shopping spree using stolen cards.

The mother-of-two's plight in the Middle East led to former prime minister Tony Blair lobbying for her release.

She was arrested in 1996 with a credit card belonging to Yvonne Gilford, and Saudi authorities claimed she and her alleged accomplice, Deborah Parry, had stabbed, bludgeoned, and suffocated their colleague.

However, following her return to Scotland in 1998, McLauchlan has appeared in court for a series of offences and has been banned from working as a nurse.

Dressed in black, the 45-year-old appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court on Tuesday, where she confessed to three charges of credit card fraud. The court heard how on 29 April last year she used two credit cards - one Visa and one Mastercard - in someone else's name to commit internet frauds from her home by ordering goods worth 1,000 from online retailers.

McLauchlan, charged under her married name, Ferrie, used the cards to buy two televisions from Argos totalling 462.98, a mobile phone worth 217.93, also from Argos, and a netbook computer from Littlewoods priced at 324.95.

Depute fiscal Lisa Welsh said that the three charges "speak for themselves" while McLauchlan's solicitor, John Boyle, said he had nothing to add on his client's behalf.

• Background: Death, money, politics and a royal pardon

A not guilty plea to a charge that McLauchlan, of Brook Street, Broughty Ferry, stole a purse from Dundee College was accepted by the Crown.

The case was deferred until next month, with Sheriff Tom Hughes telling the court: "I defer sentence in regard to these matters in order to obtain social inquiry reports, community service and restriction of liberty order assessment."

During her time in captivity in Saudi Arabia's Damnan Central Prison, McLachlan married her fianc, Grant Ferrie, 43, but the couple split up six years ago.

On her return in 1998, she sold her story to a British tabloid newspaper for a sum believed to be in the six-figure range and bought a large house in the quiet Angus village of Wellbank.

She continued to maintain her innocence in the Gilford murder.Speaking days after she arrived back in Scotland, she said: "I would like to see justice done and dearly hope that the killer is found.

"I am confident that, ultimately, the truth about this terrible crime will be known and that I will be cleared in the eyes of the world."

Months later, however, she was found guilty of charges of reset, theft and fraud at Dundee Sheriff Court.

She was caught on video raiding the bank account of an elderly woman patient in her care in the city's King's Cross hospital. The court heard McLauchlan took 300 using a stolen cash card and PIN number.

McLauchlan had fled to the Middle East as detectives investigating the theft of the bank cash card and subsequent siphoning of money began to close in on her. She had presented a nursing agency with glowing testimonials which described her as "a capable and enthusiastic professional", whose nursing care was of the highest standard.

However, it later emerged that the two nurses who purportedly composed the letters had neither written nor signed the references. She was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and ordered to pay 300 in compensation.

Following her conviction, she was struck off the nursing register by her professional regula-tory body, the UK Central Council for Nursing.