A police officer has admitted posing as an oil industry executive in a bid to dupe a colleague into quitting her role with the force.
PC Amanda Reilly, 31, spun a web of lies that saw PC Laura McWhirter believe she was going to be accepted for a highly paid job offshore.
The pair met at Police Scotland’s treatment centre in Auchterarder, Perthshire, in 2016 and struck up a friendship.
Miss McWhirter, 32, told Reilly she was not happy with her job as a constable and wanted to change career.
Reilly told her she had previously worked as an accountant in Aberdeen and knew a businessman called Peter Aird, who runs Kingdom Drilling.
Over the next five months, she lied to her colleague that she was setting up meetings with Mr Aird and arranging for Miss McWhirter to get a new job.
She faked dozens of emails from Mr Aird which led to Miss McWhirter attending for medicals in Aberdeen as well as learning to swim for offshore safety believing she was going to take up the post.
Reilly even convinced her colleague to buy an expensive Mercedes Benz car costing £319 per month because of the increased wages she would be making in the oil industry.
However, Miss McWhirter became suspicious and uncovered Reilly’s deception after she managed to contact the real Peter Aird on Facebook.
A meeting between the pair saw Reilly confess to making the whole thing up and she was reported to police bosses.
Reilly, of Tayport, has appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted stalking Miss McWhirter between May and September 2016. She is now facing the sack from the force.
Miss McWhirter discovered what was going on before handing in her resignation but has since left Police Scotland, where she had worked for eight years.
She said: “I met her up at the police treatment centre and I thought she was my pal but the whole thing was just a lie from start to finish.
“You don’t expect someone in the police to behave like this and I still don’t know why she decided to pick on me.
“When it all came out I was left questioning if she was even in the police because of the lies she told me.
“It is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard and I can’t believe it happened to me.
“I thought I was going to have this great new job and was pretty close to handing in my notice when this all came out.”
Sheriff Daniel Kelly QC deferred sentence until next month.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the outcome of this case and a report will be made for consideration of misconduct proceedings.”
