Sheriff orders financial review on embezzler 20/7/12
A sheriff has ordered a report about the finances and assets of an embezzler who stole £22,000 from a community charity.
Karen Spruce formerly of Wick but now of Mill Street, Stornoway, swindled the Wick Town Improvements Association (WTIA) over a number of years.
The Wick Gala raises local funds from a week-
The WTIA was plunged into financial ruin as a result and is waiting for the money to be repaid before being wound up. A new body, the Wick Gala Committee, set up to take over the event is being pressed by Highland Council for an “inherited” debt.
Spruce, 57, who relocated to the Western Isles during the criminal prosecution, avoided jail by promising to return the stolen money when she was originally sentenced for the theft at Wick Sheriff Court in June 2010.
Spruce had pleaded guilty to stealing the money over three years, between April 2005 and June 2008. She was placed on probation to include 240 hours of unpaid work.
She had promised to pay back the outstanding £9500 within 18 months. But about two months before that deadline it transpired that she had only raised £400. She received an extension at Stornoway Sheriff Court last October.
Spruce still has a significant amount of cash to pay back and at a review of her case yesterday, Sheriff David Sutherland, sitting in Stornoway Sheriff Court, sought a full and clear appraisal of her income and assets including those of her long term boyfriend.
He told her solicitor Kevin Macpherson he wanted “to look at the financial assets of her and her partner.”
The sheriff also sought an updated probation officer’s report for when the case returns to the Stornoway court in September.
Spruce was ordained to appear in person at the September hearing.
She was not in court yesterday and had been excused because she is presently working on the mainland.
Yesterday’s hearing was sparked by a letter received by the sheriff from a member of the public when earlier reviewing the case in April.
At the time he had just read a probation officer’s report which highlighted Spruce was obeying her probation conditions and was making good progress in paying back the missing money.
Her lawyer had accepted the one-
Spruce previously lived in Caithness and had volunteered to be treasurer of the gala body.
After relocating to Lewis, she got a job as a classroom assistant in a small rural primary school in South Lochs. She was dismissed by Western Isles Council when her offences came to light.