AN Ayrshire bank clerk, accused of embezzling from two pensioners' accounts more than two years ago, was cleared by a jury at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court yesterday.
After a five-day trial, the jury returned a majority ``not proven'' verdict on the charge that Mrs Nina Dick, 39, had embezzled #2113.36 from the two accounts between March 25 and April 28, 1994, while working at the Clydesdale Bank in Princes Street, Ardrossan.
The accounts be-longed to a Mrs Deary and a Mr McGhee - two local octogenarians who were said to be suffering a measure of senile dementia at the time.
Both have since died, Mr McGhee two weeks before the embezzlement case was brought to trial.
During legal arguments, while the jury was not present, it was said that statements made by Mr McGhee to police would not be included in evidence because there was medical opinion that he was suffering from a degree of paranoia.
Mrs Dick, of Haup-land Road, Ardrossan, denied the charge.
The prosecution said that, while working as a teller at the bank, she identified the accounts of the two customers. It was alleged that she then made a series of withdrawals by forging the clients' signatures.
One account which had held more than #1500 was found to contain just 65p. The other account was empty but showed withdrawals of more than #900.
The alleged discrepancies were discovered by relatives who visited the bank to deposit further funds the clients had apparently saved from their pensions.
Prosecutor Murdoch McTaggart said Mr McGhee's son claimed that Mrs Dick told him the account contained #1150 when it was already nearly empty.
Referring to Mrs Deary's account, he said that two transactions in March and another in April took it to zero.
Mrs Dick said that she had carried out a number of transactions involving the accounts but, she said, she had done so at the request of customers.
The Crown, said counsel, had not proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.
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