A former social worker who defrauded Fife Council made a total criminal gain of more than £17,000.
Joyce Hollywood was sentenced in 2019 for conning the council out of more than £6,500 in what a sheriff described as “outrageous behaviour.”
44 months later, lawyers have finally agreed exactly how much she must pay back.
69-year-old Hollywood was employed in a senior position at the council when she pretended to claim cash for social work clients but pocketed the money herself.
Hollywood pretended to the social work department clients had signed forms requesting the sums when, in fact, she had prepared and countersigned the forms herself.
She admitted concocting a fraudulent scheme between February 4 2011 and August 9 2013 and obtaining £6573.62 from Fife Council.
A joint minute agreed at a confiscation hearing on Friday confirmed Hollywood’s total criminal gain from the scheme was nearly three times higher at £17,363.96.
6 months to repay council
Hollywood, of Kirkcaldy’s Glen Isla Road, had been due to attend the hearing by video link but the calling proceeded without her.
She has been given six months to pay back to Fife Council the £6,573.62 which she admitted stealing.
Sheriff Robert More ordered confiscation of the remaining £10,790.34 in illicit earnings.
Exactly how that was gained was not disclosed.
At a hearing in 2019, Sheriff Grant McCulloch sentenced Hollywood, a first offender, to a community payback order requiring her to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.
The court heard although she pled guilty to the charge before the case went to trial, she later refused to accept what she had done.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff McCulloch said Hollywood had committed a “significant breach of trust over a lengthy period”.
The sheriff said her behaviour had been “outrageous” and described her lack of remorse as “absolutely astonishing”.
‘Appalling’ conduct
At the sentencing hearing, solicitor Alistair Burleigh said: “She could not bring herself, in effect, to admit what she had pleaded guilty to.”
He added: “She was in a situation at the time when she was simply not coping.
“She wasn’t coping even with basic financial matters.”
Despite Hollywood having been previously signed off work for medical reasons, the court heard she was fit to carry out unpaid work.
Passing sentence, the Sheriff McCulloch warned her should she fail to compete the order she would need to produce a valid medical reason.
He said: “You defrauded Fife Council whilst in their employment, in a senior position as a social worker, and removed funds which ought to have gone to the needy.
“No suitable explanation for this has ever been forthcoming.
“You pleaded guilty at an earlier stage but then when investigations into the background were being carried out you changed your position and denied it.
“Your conduct in dealing with the charge against you, in my view, for somebody who was in the position you were in, was quite appalling.”
Struck off
Hollywood was struck off by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in summer 2019.
A written decision stated: “The panel have not been provided with any information as to the circumstances which might have led to the conduct and there is no evidence you were experiencing any form of duress at the time.
“You have provided no references or testimonials.
“You have not co-operated to any significant degree with the SSSC.
“You have not attended any hearings in relation to this matter or provided any views.
“The panel considered that you have not shown any insight, regret or apology in relation to the conduct.
“The conduct is a significant breach of trust and you sought to conceal your wrongdoing over a period of time as evidenced by the terms of the conviction.
“In the absence of any demonstration of remorse, insight or any evidence of your attempts to remediate your conduct, the panel did not consider that they could be satisfied that the conduct or conduct of a similar nature would not be repeated.”
