A TRUSTED financial worker at one of Scotland's top legal firms has been jailed for 21 months after embezzling almost £180,000.
Purchase ledger supervisor Teresa Kidd, 44, pocketed thousands of pounds from her unsuspecting employers at Maclay Murray and Spens LLP, where she worked for more than 20 years.
She duped bosses into signing off documents they thought detailed cash being used to pay for the services of advocates. Instead she was paying the money into accounts owned by her and her then partner.
The grandmother, from Cumbernauld, admitted at Glasgow Sheriff Court that between October 2006 and November 2011, she embezzled £178,696 from the firm based at Glasgow's George Square.
Sentencing Kidd yesterday, Sheriff John McCormick told her he took into consideration the fact that she had no previous convictions and embezzled money to fund her ex-partner's gambling habit.
He added: "However, you were a longstanding and trusted employee of a firm of solicitors in Glasgow, you used that trust and experience to embezzle £178,000.
"You did so skilfully, repeatedly and over a period of approximately five years."
The court heard Kidd joined the company in 1987 and became a "trusted member of staff", later being promoted to purchase ledger supervisor.
Procurator fiscal depute Lesley Chambers told the court: "As such she was responsible for making payments to creditors, clients and other beneficiaries using money withdrawn from the corporate bank account of Maclay Murray and Spens."
The court was told Kidd was in charge of staff within the purchase ledger team.
Mrs Chambers said that cash paid out would be drawn up on a "purchase run document" with a list of creditors, the amounts paid and the relevant bank details.
This was signed off by the financial controller who carried out random sample checks on outgoing payments.
A senior member of staff would check that the amounts tallied up with the outgoing details.
The court was told: "Faculty services limited regularly provide the service of advocates to Maclay Murray and Spens and as such they would subsequently submit invoices to them.
"The invoices to them were typically for a four-figure sum although in this particular case sometimes they rose to £10,000 and £11,000."
Mrs Chambers said that for some reason, unlike most invoices, those submitted by the faculty services did not include their bank details and employees had to manually input the details.
Kidd "exploited this" and only targeted invoices relating to the faculty services to carry out her crime.
She "double submitted" invoices to the law firm, one with the correct bank details so the cash was paid to faculty services, and a second invoice with her personal bank details.
Mrs Chambers added: "This practise of double submitting came to light on January 12, 2012."
An investigation into the matter was carried out and Kidd accepted full responsibility for what she had done.
It was said on her behalf that she has two children and a grandchild and "since the matter has come to light she has not been in employment".
The court heard Kidd's ex-partner was a heavy drinker and gambler and she was under "psychological pressure" from him.
Solicitor advocate Ross Brown, defending, said: "This is completely different to a person who undertook a calculated course of conduct for personal gain.
"This does not appear to be the case when dealing with Teresa Kidd."
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