A payroll manager has been jailed for more than two years after embezzling almost £360,000 from the British Red Cross.
Mary Booth, 56, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison at Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday.
Booth, who had worked for the charity for more than 30 years, was found guilty of embezzling money, both at the charity’s headquarters in London and then in Paisley, in Renfrewshire in Scotland, between 2008 and 2015.
She used the money to fund a gambling habit.
Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: “We were devastated to discover that a long-serving employee in a position of trust had defrauded us. Every day we strive to help some of the most vulnerable people in the UK and overseas and for our trust to be abused in this way is really, really disappointing.
“As soon as we identified there was fraudulent activity we alerted the police and the Charity Commission and undertook an independent forensic financial audit.
“This member of staff was trusted to handle our money and that has given us cause to think long and hard about how we tighten up our procedures. We have put robust measures in place to prevent this from ever happening again.
“We have taken several important steps to review and further strengthen our financial controls and procedures to prevent this from ever happening again.
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