Woman who embezzled £96k from kids' charity and family business to repay just £36,000
Beverley Bennie, 37, swiped nearly £100,000 from the charity but has been ordered to repay just £36,036.50.
A woman who embezzled nearly £100,000 from a kids' charity and family business has been ordered to repay just £36,000.
Beverley Bennie, 37, swiped a total of £96,371 from Kids Come First and vending firm Myrtle Coffee in Kirkcaldy, Fife. She was jailed for 20 months after admitting the crime earlier this year.
And yesterday, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court ordered her to repay a sum of £36,036.50 to communities under Proceeds of Crime laws. Bennie was given six months to pay the confiscation order.
The order can be revisited if further assets are identified in the future to be paid towards the full amount due back to the charity.
Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: 'Beverley Bennie was convicted of crimes that displayed a betrayal of trust by someone who had financial oversight of fu n ds from a children's charity and a family business.
'She showed no regard for the impact her crimes would have on vulnerable children or the effect it would have on those trying to run an honest business.
'We take such criminality very seriously. This confiscation order shows that the Crown will not stop at prosecution.
'Even after that conviction was secured, the Crown pursued Proceeds of Crime action to ensure funds she obtained illegally were confiscated.
' Confiscation orders have ongoing financial consequences, meaning we can seek to recover further assets from this individual in the future to reflect the full amount.
'These funds will be added to those already gathered from Proceeds of Crime and will be re-invested in Scottish communities through the CashBack for Communities programme.'
During a previous hearing, the court heard how Bennie worked as a business manager with Myrtle Coffee, which supplies wholesale coffee and vending services.
Her role gave her access to the firm's system, and she was responsible for the petty cash as well as an electronic cash account.
A fixed float of £20,000 was always held in the company safe, which was also the responsibility of Bennie.
But after a financial review in August 2023, it was discovered a substantial amount of cash was missing from the safe as it only contained £7,610.
An audit then revealed Bennie had carried out numerous fraudulent transactions between September 2017 and September 2023.
Company officials discovered she had inflated the values of genuine receipts, reversed some transactions, fabricated receipts, created false accounts and employed other methods to reduce and manipulate the petty cash balance.
The total amount obtained by the fraudster was £83,599.93.
The court was also told that in 2018, Bennie took on the role of treasurer with Kids Come First, a charity based at the Benarty Centre in Ballingry, Fife.
In 2021, it was revealed the charity had limited cash reserve s and some staff members could not be paid.
Fife Council then instructed charity bosses to hire a forensic accountant to examine the accounts and locate the missing cash.
The damning results showed a number of unauthorised cash transfers totalling £12,771.69 made by Bennie between December 2020 and September 2021.
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