A bookkeeper scammed tens of thousands of pounds from the firm where she worked then blew it on cars, foreign holidays and jewellery.
Catherine Bryceland embezzled £60,000 from Raymond Gloag Painters and Decorators in Dundee over the course of 18 months. She used the cash to fund a luxury lifestyle for her and her family.
Now she faces jail after she admitted the charges on the third day of her trial before a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The trial earlier heard that company owner Raymond Gloag was left “hurt” when the fraud came to light.
Bryceland had been left to run the financial side of the business – with Mr Gloag even signing blank cheques to allow Bryceland to pay bills.
But the 50-year-old abused that trust – and used the cheques to pay cash into her own bank account.
Fiscal depute Donna Brown told the court the scam was “amateurish” and was easily detected after she left the company in 2010.
Bryceland, 50, of Wellgrove Street, Dundee, had denied embezzling £192,000 from the firm.
But today, on the third day of her trial, the Crown accepted her guilty plea to embezzling the lesser sum of £60,000 from the company between July 2007 and December 2008.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher was told there was no prospect of Bryceland repaying the money.
He deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and released Bryceland on bail.
