A FORMER college official whose career was destroyed after allegations of fraud is calling for an inquiry.

Leigh Berridge, a former director at Adam Smith College, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, was accused alongside a colleague of acquiring more than £3 million in European money for the institution to which it was not entitled.

The pair endured two years of criminal investigations before finally being told last month that all the charges had been dropped.

The mother of two has now called on the Scottish Parliament to investigate the events at the college which led to the prosecutions.

Ms Berridge said: "I lost my job, a job that I loved and was very good at. To have been accused of being part of a criminal conspiracy and be arrested in my own home has been hugely traumatic and detrimental to myself and my family.

“People still question what went on and I still feel I need to clear both my name and that of my colleague. That is why I want the [Holyrood] audit committee to look again at this because the detail of what happened and who is accountable must now come into the public domain.”

Ms Berridge was arrested at her home in the village of Pitlessie, Fife in December 2013 and accused of inducing the Scottish Government to hand over the European money to the college between 2008 and 2012.

The accusation surrounded information about staffing costs for EU-funded projects. Prosecutors said forms and documentation had been submitted which contained “fabricated” information.

It was also alleged that investigating auditors were given false details about costs in “an attempt to conceal” the alleged “criminality”.

As a result, the college was said to have obtained £3.3m of cash from the Scottish Government that it was not entitled to with an attempt to secure a further £127,000.

However, because Ms Berridge kept records of all her emails throughout the period she said she was able to demonstrate to the Crown Office that the lists had not been concocted. She said: “People actually still think that I have stolen more than £3m so I want people in the public sector who have not yet answered questions on this to be held to account. I haven’t done anything fraudulent or remotely wrong in any sense. Yet because of a failed college whistleblowing process, a failed Scottish Government audit process and a flawed police investigation I was made a scapegoat. That is not the way justice is supposed to work in this country.”

A spokesman for the Crown Office said the investigation had been “complex” and involved “detailed scrutiny of the college’s finances and systems of management and administration”.

But, he said, as more evidence came to light “it became clear that there was no longer sufficient evidence to continue criminal proceedings”.

Kirkcaldy MSP David Torrance said he was “surprised” by the outcome and “concerned” that there have been no criminal convictions to date. “There remain very serious questions about the nature of what occurred at the Adam Smith College in this instance. I maintain a strong conviction that someone must be held accountable.” Adam Smith College has since merged with Carnegie College in Dunfermline to form Fife College.