A FINANCE worker who embezzled more than £350,000 from the British Red Cross under the guise of sending money to former delegates and staff was yesterday jailed.

Mary Booth was “a trusted and valued” British Red Cross employee for 34 years and worked at the charity’s London headquarters before their payroll department moved to Renfrewshire. She earned £45,000-per-year and retired with a full pension and lump sum from the British Red Cross offices in Smithhills Street, Paisley.

But the seemingly trustworthy 56-year-old siphoned off £359,551.27 from the charity’s accounts, which she paid into her own bank accounts.

She said she scammed the charity, which helps needy souls across the world, to fund her online gambling habit after splitting from her husband.

Booth was jailed for 27 months at Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday for embezzled £359,551.27 between November 1, 2008, and August 31, 2015, at the British Red Cross’ Paisley office and their London premises in Moorfields.

She pleaded guilty to the seven-year scam last month.

Booth had access to the charity’s bank accounts and BACS payment systems, allowing her to send money to herself.

In February 2016, after Booth had retired, Deborah McBean, the charity’s head of control and compliance, noticed irregularities in payments from 2015. An investigation was launched, the British Red Cross had the bank accounts the money had been paid in to frozen, prompting Booth to contact them.