Aberdeen nan loses legal fight to avoid repaying employers after £1.5m swindle

Press and Journal

16-05-2025

A greedy granny who pocketed £1.5 million from her Aberdeen employers has been ordered to pay them back less than half of her ill-gotten gains.
Coleen Muirhead, a £33,000-a-year admin worker at Panda Rosa Metals, admitted to the crime and was jailed for three years and three months in September 2023.
Prosecutors launched Proceeds of Crime court action against the 57-year-old, who had bought new cars, two static caravans and high-end auction items.
During a confiscation hearing today at the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Matthews ordered Muirhead to repay £668,726 to her former employers.
She had challenged the court action and claimed she was now in debt and living on benefits at her estranged husband's home, stating none of her friends and family, whom she had given money to, could pay her back.
It was concluded that Muirhead's 'benefit from her criminal conduct' amounted to £1,952,771.
She created false accounts to steal the cash between June 2015 and October 2021, splashing out on expensive family holidays.
Muirhead was freed from prison earlier this year and told a judge all the money was gone, having gambled it away, bought holidays, given large sums to family and paid off a colleague she accused of blackmailing her.
Sineidin Corrins, Depute Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said Muirhead had 'committed an egregious betrayal of trust'.
She warned: 'Confiscation orders have ongoing financial consequences, meaning we can seek to recover further assets from this individual in the future to ensure she pays back the full amount.'
At a hearing last week, Muirhead's lawyer, Simon Collins, asked Muirhead to detail to whom she had given some of her ill-gotten gains.
One was a then colleague, who she claimed was given £6,760 between 2019 and 2020.
'This was a lad that I worked with,' Muirhead explained. 'He knew what I had done and was asking for money to keep quiet.'
The mum's four adult sons were also given sizeable amounts of the loot.
Muirhead told the court: 'I was giving it away as quickly as it came in. If anyone asked for help, I was giving it to them.'
She said she had been struggling to deal with personal matters at the time, leading to issues with drinking and gambling.
One son received just over £164,000, another around £140,000, a third £75,000 and the final one £33,000.
A daughter-in-law, who helped Muirhead clean two static caravans she owned in Lossiemouth, was handed £64,500.
Another, whom Muirhead stated 'used to take me shopping,' received around £21,000.
The then partner of one of her other sons was handed more than £60,000 over the years.
However, Muirhead admitted: 'I think she played me a bit.'
Muirhead told the court she has since spoken to most of the people who were given cash, but none of them are able to pay it back.
In cross-examination, prosecutor Bryan Heaney said the money noted as being handed to others totalled around £600,000, leaving £900,000 of the stolen amount.
Questioning her about that, Mr Heaney asked Muirhead about her gambling problem.
She told him: 'I went into the bingo hall where the [gaming] machines were and sat on them all day.'
She claimed to have never won and does not know exactly how much she lost gambling.
Muirhead admitted to splashing out for the 'whole family' to go on holidays abroad.
She said this included trips to Turkey, Cyprus and Tenerife.
Asked how much these cost over the years, Muirhead stated: 'Probably a couple of hundred thousand.'
Mr Heaney quizzed Muirhead whether people wondered how she could afford this.
'No one was interested,' she replied, adding: 'Not one person asked.'
The advocate depute responded: 'You are telling the court you do not think you can get any of the money back?'
Muirhead answered back: 'No one has got anything. They do not have the finances.'
In his closing submission to judge Lord Matthews, Mr Heaney said Muirhead seemed to be suggesting £900,000 of the £1.5m went on sunshine breaks, drink and gambling machines.
But, he said, there was 'not so much as a holiday snap on the beach' as evidence of trips away.
Mr Collins argued that a confiscation order against Muirhead would be 'disproportionate'.
He said she did not have the means to repay any money, she had asked the others without success.
Muirhead's scheme unravelled after she boasted about her lavish lifestyle to a colleague who paid the company wages and believed she was living outside her means.
Separately, company finances were reviewed when a drop in funds sparked concerns.
The review uncovered fake invoices from a bogus customer named 'G Anderson' who had been paid by Muirhead.
She had deposited the funds into her own bank account.
Five company accounts containing her bank details were found.
'G Anderson appeared to be a significant customer, but was not known to senior company officials.
The financial details of 'G Anderson' were checked against Muirhead's bank details.
Company officials saw the sort codes and account numbers matched and the police were called.
Officers searched Muirhead's home on October 9 2021, discovering documents that linked her to lavish spending.
On the same day, she sent a WhatsApp message to a colleague in which she stated: 'I have done Panda Rosa out of a lot of money. I was G Anderson. Police have just raided! Please don't think the worst of me.'