A postmistress who embezzled more than £110,000 is having her assets investigated by a specialist team of officers from Police Scotland.
Carol Oswald was jailed for 40 months in May after she admitted stealing and embezzling the cash during a five-year period.
Oswald is being pursued for the proceeds of her crimes by the Crown and Perth Sheriff Court heard that they needed more time to establish the extent of her assets.
Depute fiscal Carol Whyte told the court: “Police Scotland are in the process of compiling an up-to-date asset check and my motion is to continue this matter six weeks before any settlement is agreed.”
The Crown had initially agreed a cut price deal to claw back just £50,000 from Oswald under Proceeds of Crime legislation, but a further probe has been launched.
Solicitor Cliff Culley, defending, said the Proceeds of Crime claim “would not be contested” by his client.
The sub-post office manager frittered the money on internet betting and told investigating officers she kept going to try to win back money to pay for the losses the business was racking up.
As well as embezzling money from her work and an environmental charity, Oswald also stole more than £8,000 from the elderly woman who trusted her to run the Post Office.
She stole directly from 81-year-old Jean Johnson, but also left the pensioner who owned the Post Office business – liable for the £100,000 Oswald embezzled from the branch.
Mr Culley told the court: “The money was taken from the Post Office account and put into her account and she gambled it. She just felt totally out of control.
“She accepts a significant amount of money was taken from the Post Office to fund that gambling habit. It wasn’t a sophisticated, pre-planned fraud. She was out of her depth.
“She wasn’t funding an extravagant lifestyle. She didn’t have holidays. She lived in fear of being found out and it was inevitable she would be found out.”
Oswald collapsed when fraud investigators quizzed her.