Spike in high value fraud in Tayside as two cases total £269k

Tayside has become the victim of a spike in high value fraud — while the rest of Scotland experiences a sharp fall.

Data revealed by auditors KPMG showed that in the first six months of 2014 there were no court cases in Tayside involving fraud over the value of £100,000.

But this year, two significant proceedings took place worth a combined £269,051.12.

But when cases around the whole of Scotland are compared, there was a drop of 39% in high value fraud.

The two cases in Tayside took place at the sheriff courts in Dundee and Perth.

In January, Kevin Mitchell was jailed for 34 months by Sheriff Ian Anderson after he admitted 32 charges involving dozens of high-value designer items.

Mitchell, of Inn Street, Tayport, admitted pawning dozens of his customers’ watches, with a value of £80,000, at the Ramsdens shop on High Street in Dundee.

He also embezzled dozens of customers’ possessions and cash, valued at more than £50,000.

One of his victims was Fifa referee Gordon Hunter, whose £600 inscribed Pulsar watch, gifted to him after a Uefa Cup match, disappeared.

The second case involved the manager of Letham Post Office, in Perth’s Rannoch Road, who was jailed for 40 months after embezzling more than £100,000 from a charity and an 81-year-old friend.

Carol Oswald, of Grange Terrace, Perth, was reported to have gambled the money in the hope any winnings would resolve the Post Office’s financial difficulties.

Ken Milliken, head of forensic for KPMG in Scotland, said: “When you go beyond Scotland as a whole and look at regions, it’s difficult to find a trend or a reason why there might be a certain number of cases. But what’s interesting is that each case of embezzlement seems to follow the same rules.

“First, there has to be an opportunity for an employee to do it. Second, there needs to be a personal reason for doing it — normally an issue surrounding their own personal debt.

“Third, they need to have the ability to sleep at night without feeling guilty. Ultimately companies need to make sure they have all the checks in place that they can to prevent it happening to them.”