Hamilton accountant jailed for £300,000 fraud

Nov 10 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

A HAMILTON accountant who embezzled more than £300,000 was this week jailed for four years.

David Allan (65), of John Street, stole the money over six years from Rowan Timber Supplies Scotland Limited, Main Street, Plains, Airdrie.

Sentencing him at Airdrie Sheriff Court on Monday, Sheriff Frank Pieri branded him a “habitual fraudster who could never be trusted”.

The latest crime happened between November 13, 2001 and August 10, 2007. At the time of the embezzlement, portly, grey-haired Allan was employed as an accountant of sister firms McLeod and Higgins Roofing Contractors Limited and Rowan Timber.

He was interviewed by fraud squad detectives on October 1, 2009, and admitted the complaints against him and described the method he used to carry out the crime.

Prosecutor Jamie Lipton then revealed that Allan had served a two-year prison sentence in 1982 for fraud and embezzlement of another firm.

It led to him being struck off as a qualified chartered accountant.

Despite that, he was appointed Rowan Timber’s accountant in 1989 and worked for the company for 20 years. He had no certificate to operate as a chartered accountant.

Mr Lipton added: “When the crime was discovered he was not dismissed immediately by Rowan Timber, instead the company kept him on to train his replacement!”

Allan had originally been charged with embezzling £625,000, but pleaded guilty to stealing the reduced amount of £312,842.

Mr Lipton told the court: “He was left without supervision during his time with Rowan Timber and McLeod and Higgins, who were the holding company. The crimes only came to light during a tax investigation in 2007.”

The court heard that Rowan Timber employ 160 workers and last year had a turnover of £30m.

Mr Lipton went on: “It was a simple method. He took the company’s cash to the bank but pocketed the cash and instead banked company cheques and forged and re-wrote the bank deposit slips to show the banking had been made in its entirety. He was in the day-to-day control of the company affairs, so no suspicion arose.

“Once it became clear cheques from the bank didn’t match company cheques, suspicion finally fell on Allan and in 2007 he admitted to directors he had taken £150,000”

Defence counsel Victor Dunn said: “He is under no illusions as to the eventual outcome.”

As Allan was being led away to begin his sentence, the fraudster turned and said “thank you” to the sheriff, for the jail term.