A ‘miracle’ mum who embezzled £150,000 from the Child Support Agency where she worked has been jailed for 21 months.
Audrey Foy squandered an average of £7,000 a month on herself and her teenage son as she “frittered away” vast sums of taxpayers’ money.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court was told on Tuesday that the only substantial purchases had been a car and two holidays, one of which was to New York.
Foy told in 2009 how she had given up trying for a baby after the heartache of three miscarriages.
But she unexpectedly fell pregnant in 2003 at the age of 36.
The court heard she had had to warn her only child she would not be coming home as she prepared to start the lengthy jail term.
Her solicitor Peter Mullen said the 50-year-old had no money left and was unable to explain what she had spent it on.
Foy, of Turner Crescent, Methil, admitted embezzling the sum while employed by the Child Support Agency in Kirkcaldy.
The crime was committed over a 21-month period from June 6 2014 and March 18 2016.
Mr Mullen said she was not in a position to pay the money back.
“I’ve been through all the bank accounts and there’s next to nothing there,” he said.
“She’s telling the truth when she says she doesn’t know where it’s gone.
“She spent it on her son. A lot of it was being frittered away on relatively minor things.”
The solicitor said Foy had prepared herself for custody logistically but not mentally.
But he appealed to Sheriff Grant McCulloch to show a degree of mercy.
“While Miss Foy recognises that the court must lock her up, I’m asking you not to throw away the key,” he said.
“She is desperate to get back home and rebuild her life with her son.
“For her, even one night in custody would be heartbreaking.”
Sheriff McCulloch told Foy she had carried out a “systematic fraud” of the Child Support Agency.
“You were not only in a position of trust at work, you were also in a position of trust and responsibility for your son,” he said.
Adding that she had shown little remorse or explanation for what she had done, he added: “It is with regret, but with necessity, that I impose a sentence of 21 months imprisonment.”
A weeping Foy was then led away in handcuffs.
When her son started school in 2009, she told how she feared she would never have a baby after suffering three miscarriages, two of which followed IVF treatment.
She gave up trying after being told she should have a hysterectomy but the operation was shelved when her father died, and she was amazed to fall pregnant naturally.
