A bookkeeper who scammed tens of thousands of pounds from the firm where she worked then blew it on cars, foreign holidays and jewellery has been jailed for 18 months.
Catherine Bryceland embezzled £60,000 from Raymond Gloag Painters and Decorators in Dundee over the course of 18 months.
She used the cash to fund a luxury lifestyle for her and her family.
Her trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard that company owner Raymond Gloag was left “hurt” when the fraud came to light.
Bryceland had been left to run the financial side of the business – with Mr Gloag even signing blank cheques to allow her to pay bills.
But the 50-year-old used the cheques to pay cash into her own bank account.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher told Bryceland: “You simply took advantage of a surprising degree of naivety on the part of your employer.”
Bryceland, 50, of Wellgrove Street, Dundee, had denied embezzling £192,000 from the firm.
But on the third day of her trial, the Crown accepted her guilty plea to embezzling the lesser sum of £60,000 from the company between July 2007 and December 2008.
Sheriff Fletcher told her: “This was a very serious offence. It was obviously worked out and planned.
“It was also sophisticated enough for you to avoid suspicion on the part of your employer, although it didn’t escape the accountants.
“A custodial sentence is appropriate and is the only method of dealing with this matter.”
