A COUNCIL employee has been jailed after siphoning off more than £1 million from a local authority in a fraud that went undetected for nearly seven years.
Mark Conway first diverted public money to his own accounts after running up debts on online gambling websites.
Conway, 52, went on to defraud Dundee City Council of £1,065,085.32 before being suspended on full pay.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Graeme Buchanan QC told Conway it was a "very serious matter indeed".
He was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing later this month after he admitted obtaining the money by fraud from the council between August 6, 2009 and May 25 last year.
Conway, formerly of Latch Road, Brechin, in Angus, made entries in the local authority’s computer system pretending to represent sums due to genuine suppliers to the council but had the money paid into his bank and building society accounts.
Advocate depute Rosemary Guinnane said: “He was an IT officer specialising in financial IT systems and was regarded as the council’s primary specialist in these systems.
"He was given wide access to the computer systems.”
The prosecutor said Conway had “unrestricted access” to financial computer systems used for recoding invoices from suppliers and processing payments.
He began the scam in 2009, after falling into debt through the use of online gambling websites.
He created payments that appeared to be to legitimate suppliers to the council, including Scottish Fuels, but in fact the entries contained the account details of his own Nationwide building society account.
Ms Guinnane said: “During the period August 2009 to May 2016 the accused’s actions went undetected by the council’s audit procedures.”
In May 2016 an employee carrying out an exercise became aware of a £7,337 payment to a building firm and thought it was unusual that that it was made to a Nationwide building society account.
Conway initially tried to cover up his actions and on May 25 last year he created a further Scottish Fuels invoice but with his Santander bank account details.
However, on the same day the council’s head of customer service and IT, Gregory Colgan, was made aware of the discrepancy. Senior officials then decided to suspend Conway on full pay.
Auditors were called in to identify how funds had been diverted to Conway’s accounts.
Ms Guinnane said: “They also identified various weaknesses in the council’s accounting practices that allowed the fraud to remain undetected for so long.”
Defence counsel Gavin Anderson said a background report would be required on Conway ahead of sentencing but made no motion to continue his bail.
He said Conway had previously made “full admissions of guilt”.
Of the total amount, £7,337.58 has been paid back to the council. The Crown has raised proceedings to seize any available crime profits made by Conway.
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