A former disability charity worker in Scotland has been ordered to pay compensation after stealing almost £30,000 from beneficiaries.
Margaret Burnett pleaded guilty to stealing a total of £29,900 from five disabled residents at a Leonard Cheshire supported accommodation facility in Edinburgh between January 2014 and June 2016.
Burnett avoided a prison sentence but was placed on a 12-month supervision order and subjected to a restriction of liberty order, following a prosecution by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
She has also been ordered to pay £3,000 in compensation to the four victims still alive. The fifth, who had cerebral palsy, has since died.
Multiple withdrawals made from victims’ bank accounts
Burnett had worked as a team leader at Leonard Cheshire’s Edinburgh facility for 13 years.
Her position gave her access to the facility’s safe and a locked cabinet containing residents’ bank cards, five of which Burnett illegally used to make multiple withdrawals from their accounts.
Burnett’s activities were eventually uncovered when staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland noted “anomalies” on one resident’s account and flagged this to the charity.
The police were subsequently alerted following an internal investigation carried out by Leonard Cheshire.
Burnett was suspended and later dismissed from her role when the allegations first emerged, prior to her arrest in November 2019.
‘A despicable abuse of trust’
A spokesperson for Leonard Cheshire described Burnett’s actions as “a despicable abuse of trust”.
They added that all of the victims were reimbursed by the charity, which had an annual income of over £151m according to its most recently filed accounts.
“Processes and procedures are in place at all Leonard Cheshire services to minimise the risk of any staff member, however senior, committing this type of crime,” they said.
“The systems we have now are designed to identify suspicious activity far sooner.”
Related articles
