Fraudster who swindled £630k from Scots farming firms through bounced cheques jailed
A fraudster who swindled farming firms out of £630,000 through a system of bounced cheques has been jailed for five years.
Barry Mackland, 50, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday. Mackland, of Aberdeen, caused the businesses to lose more than half a million pounds by obtaining the cash through false pretences between March 2022 and June 2022.
He pretended to other firms that the cheques he presented to them for tractors and machinery would be honoured if they were handed to a bank. However, the companies lost out when there were insufficient funds in Mackland's account to make the payments.
Mackland was still able to obtain the ill-gained goods worth tens of thousands of pounds.
His offending involved two businesses in Forfar, one in Stonehaven and a fourth in Lincolnshire.
Evidence led in court by prosecutors revealed how he persuaded the Scottish dealers to supply him with vehicles to the value of £500,000 - knowing the cheques he used as payment would bounce.
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Payment was never made and the vehicles were not returned.
And he pretended to the company in Lincolnshire that he would supply them with a JCB for £52,200 and then failed to supply the vehicle or return the money.
In total, the overall value of his fraudulent activity was put at £630,000.
He was found guilty of defrauding three agricultural companies by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Moira Orr, who leads on Major Crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: 'Fraud is not a victimless crime. It strikes at and erodes the basis of trust upon which all businesses rightly depend. We take such criminality very seriously.
'Businesses and individuals suffered considerable financial harm as a consequence of Barry Mackland's crimes.
'But thanks to partnership working between Police Scotland and the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service, he has been brought to account for his crimes.
'As prosecutors, we are wholly committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.'
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