A woman who stole more than £1.3 million from the Aberdeen-based oil industry firm where she worked has been jailed for three years and four months at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Jacqueline McPhie, 46, embezzled the money while vice-president for finance at Altus Intervention over a 12-month period from March 2013.
The court was told that McPhie diverted money from the business, which supplies equipment for North Sea oil and gas projects, to fund her lifestyle. She bought an £80,000 Range Rover, and spent more than £60,000 on a new garage and driveway, £52,000 on a kitchen and £30,000 on a summer house in her garden at her home in Aberdeen’s West End.
The court also heard that she had previously been sentenced to 300 hours of community service 16 years ago for stealing £250,000 from previous employers.
In sentencing McPhie, the judge Lady Wise told her: “You enjoyed a salary of almost £150,000 per annum, you were married with a child, your husband also had work.
“Your motivation can only have been greed, to have even more material wealth than your position allowed you to accrue. It is of considerable concern that this is not your first conviction for a dishonesty offence.
“You have a previous conviction for embezzlement, also of a significant sum dating from 2000 when you were given a non-custodial sentence. That experience did not deter you from further similar criminal conduct.”
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