A CEMETERY manager who pocketed thousands of pounds by selling forged burial deeds to bereaved families has been jailed.
William Henderson, 45, was sentenced to 16 months in prison following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
He had previously pleaded guilty to one charge of "fraudulent scheme" in relation to his employment at Mount Vernon cemetery in Liberton, Edinburgh.
He sold space in the cemetery to grieving families to use for burials, for example unused space under access paths.
He targeted 13 people, taking £14,720 in money between 2006 and 2015.
Andrew Richardson, Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said: “Henderson was a trusted individual by those who had responsibility for the running of the cemetery and he took the opportunity to abuse that trust for his own financial gain."
Henderson was employed at the cemetery between 1997 and 2015.
From 2006 onwards he created fake burial deeds and persuaded grieving families to pay for them to bury their loved ones.
He also oversaw the 'overburial' of two people where families were sold plots they believed to be fresh graves. In fact, they were unmarked graves that were already occupied.
The offences were brought to the attention of Police Scotland by the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, which is thought to have lost thousands of pounds.
Following an investigation by Edinburgh's CID, Henderson was charged in November 2016.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Grainger said: "William Henderson successfully obtained large sums of money from people mourning the death of loved ones and looking to have them buried within Mount Vernon Cemetery.
"At no point during our inquiries did Henderson show any remorse for his actions, or the impact his deception will have had on his victims.
"We took a sensitive and professional approach when interviewing those affected and are extremely grateful to everyone who assisted with our inquiries, particularly when they had to relive some painful memories in the process.
"I would again like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all the families who supported our investigation, as well as the staff at the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, who worked really hard to help with our inquiries.
"It is my hope that this sentence now brings a sense of closure around this matter."
Mr Richardson added: “This was as very unusual offence which greatly affected a number of families. It was a complex case to investigate, requiring painstaking effort from police and prosecutors to establish the fraud that was being perpetrated.
“It should be some comfort to the victims of his offending that he accepted his guilt at an early stage in proceedings.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here