A former assistant manager at Grant Thornton UK has pleaded guilty to embezzling over £726,000 from trusts set up to help charities.
Susan McMahon, 34 from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Tuesday, pleading guilty to embezzling £726,765 between May 2004 and May 2013.
McMahon, in her role at Grant Thornton, was responsible for disbursing money to charity via cheque on behalf of a number of trusts. She falsified documents so her superiors would authorise cheques, believing the trustees had agreed the money would go to various charity beneficiaries, the Herald Scotland has reported.
The court was told six trusts had funds belonging to them fraudulently removed and paid out to her or her husband’s accounts. Her husband is said to have had no knowledge of his wife’s crimes.
The Trusts that lost money were the Margaret Murdoch Charitable Trust, The Morrison Foundation, Mr J Anderson, Mrs J Anderson, Mrs JMC Smith and Adam Boyd.
McMahon had been responsible for writing out the cheques for the approved donations and presenting them with documents to be signed. Her bosses had believed that the money was going to various charities including Save the Children, the court was told.
She was caught in April 2013 when one partner at Grant Thornton because suspicious after authorising a cheque for £15,000 to be paid to an Aberdeen sports charity and realising that the project the funds had been approved for did not fit with the purpose of the charity receiving the donation.
McMahon had claimed that the Margaret Murdoch Trust had authorised the payment, but on checking with them he discovered that no such payment had been approved.
A spokesman for Grant Thornton said: "Grant Thornton, together with its insurers, is in the course of addressing compensation arrangements with the affected trusts in respect of the losses they have been shown to have incurred by reason of Mrs McMahon’s criminal activity.
“Whilst not wishing to be anything other than helpful, you will appreciate that Grant Thornton is constrained by obligations of confidence from disclosing any further details in relation to such arrangements."
The court heard no money has yet to be repaid. Sheriff Alan Miller deferred sentence on McMahon until next month and remanded her in custody.
