A Fife woman who stole £18,000 from an award-winning chocolate fountain firm has been told to pay a £1 confiscation order.
Elaine McCall, 51, was jailed in May for 93 weeks for embezzling the money from Sephra Europe Ltd while an employee at the firm’s Kirkcaldy site, between March 2019 and March 2020.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard previously McCall was jailed for 16 months for a similar crime in 2005.
She returned to the dock from custody on Friday for a proceeds of crime hearing.
Defence lawyer Alan Jackson said a confiscation order has been made in the sum of £1.
It means McCall has nothing to pay back at the moment but the nominal sum means the Crown can, at a later stage, review this.
A joint minute of agreed evidence, lodged before the court, states the £1 payment must be made to the sheriff clerk at Dunfermline Sheriff Court within two weeks.
Court apology
Beleaguered prisoner escort firm GEOAmey has apologised for holding up the start of a serious assault trial at Perth Sheriff Court. Bosses blamed staffing issues for difficulties bringing Glenochil inmate Dean Stirton, 32, into the dock. He was eventually found not guilty.
Illegal SIM flushed out
A jailed drug dealer from Dundee has had his sentence extended by four months after prison guards found a state-issued phone with an unauthorised SIM card floating in his toilet.
Luke Moncrieff, who was jailed for his involvement in Scotland’s heroin and cocaine trade, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted having an illegal communications device at the city’s jail on August 4 last year.
Fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton said: “The accused was within the toilet block and his cellmate was on the bed.
“Both were body searched, with a negative result.
“A full search of the cell was carried out and within the toilet block, a mobile phone was found in the toilet.
“The phone’s seal had been tampered with and it was found to contain the illicit SIM.”
Moncrieff admitted responsibility for the card, the fiscal depute said.
Representing himself via video link from jail, Moncrieff, 33, said he had been using the device to keep in touch with family.
Moncrieff, who was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow in 2021, said he is not due to be released until 2027.
Bogus workman jailed
Previously convicted bogus workman James Peacock, 42, returned to his criminal ways to defraud an elderly couple out of hundreds of pounds by claiming to carry out maintenance on their Kirkcaldy home. The former scaffolding firm boss from Fife was jailed in 2020 for scamming pensioners out of thousands of pounds for roofing repairs he failed to carry out and has been convicted for the same thing again.
Takeaway denial knife attack
A Fife teenager slashed his mother with a steak knife after she refused to order a takeaway.
The 17-year-old, too young to be named publicly, left a cut on his mother’s arm following the incident at a property in High Valleyfield on September 14 last year.
He appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to admit behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Procurator fiscal depute Amy Robertson said a row began after the woman told her son what food she was preparing and that a “takeaway was not an option”.
He began shouting and swearing and slashed at her arm with the small, serrated knife.
The wound – an approximately four-inch scratch, with the skin having split in the centre, exposing fatty tissue – was treated with paper stitches and the mother contacted police.
After being charged the boy replied: “I am sorry, it was an accident”.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said the mother believes it was accidental, the regretful teenager has apologised several times and the family has put the matter behind them.
Sheriff Charles Lugton deferred sentence until August 23 to obtain background reports.
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