Gran jailed for stealing £1.5m 'used cash to gamble and pay off blackmailer'

A grandmother who stole £1.5m from her employers has told a court she used some of the cash to pay off a colleague blackmailing her.

Coleen Muirhead made the claim as prosecutors seek to get back a large chunk of her ill-gotten gains.

The 57-year-old was jailed for three years and three months in 2023 after she admitted embezzling the money from Panda Rosa Metals in Aberdeen, where she was a £33,000-a-year admin worker.

She had created false accounts to help pocket the cash between June 2015 and October 2021.

The Crown is now seeking to recover almost £700,000 of the stolen sum.

Muirhead, who is challenging the action, gave evidence at the proceeds of crime hearing at the High Court in Glasgow.

She was freed from her prison sentence earlier this year.

Muirhead told her lawyer, Simon Collins, that she is in debt, living on benefits, and staying with her estranged husband purely because it is more cost-effective.

The discovery of unsafe RAAC concrete at the former council house in Aberdeen also cut the value of the property to below £30,000.

Mr Collins went on to take Muirhead through the various people she is said to have given some of the cash to.

One was a then colleague she called “Scott”, who was given £6,760 between 2019 and 2020.

Explaining this for the first time in court, Muirhead told the hearing: “This was a lad that I worked with. He knew what I had done and was asking for money to keep quiet.”

The mum’s four adult sons were also given sizeable amounts of money.

Muirhead stated at one stage: “I was giving it away as quickly as it came in. If anyone asked for help, I was giving it to them.”

She said she had been struggling to deal with personal matters at the time, leading to issues with drink and gambling.

One son got just over £164,000, another around £140,000, a third £75,000, and the final boy £33,000.

A daughter-in-law, who helped Muirhead clean two static caravans she owned in Lossiemouth got £64,500.

Another, whom Muirhead stated “used to take me shopping”, received around £21,000.

The then partner of one of her other sons was handed more than £60,000 over the years.

But, Muirhead admitted: “I think she played me a bit.”

Muirhead told the court she has since spoken to most of the people cash was given to, but that none of them are able to pay it back.

In cross-examination, prosecutor Bryan Heaney said the money noted as being handed to others totalled around £600,000, leaving £900,000 of the stolen amount.

Questioning her about that, Mr Heaney asked Muirhead about her gambling problem.

She told him: “I went into the bingo hall where the (gaming) machines were and sat on them all day.”

She claimed to have never won and does not know how much exactly she lost gambling.

Muirhead admitted to splashing out for the “whole family” to go on holidays abroad.

She said this included trips to Turkey, Cyprus, and Tenerife.

Asked how much these cost over the years, Muirhead stated: “Probably a couple of hundred thousand.”

Mr Heaney quizzed Muirhead whether people wondered how she could afford this.

She told him: “No one was interested. Not one person asked.”

The advocate depute further put to her: “You are telling the court you do not think you can get any of the money back?”

Muirhead: “No one has got anything. They do not have the finances.”

In his closing submission to judge Lord Matthews, Mr Heaney said Muirhead seemed to be suggesting £900,000 of the £1.5m went on sunshine breaks, drink, and gambling machines.

But, he said, there was “not so much as a holiday snap on the beach” as evidence of trips away.

Mr Collins went on to argue that a confiscation order against Muirhead would be “disproportionate”.

He said she did not have the means to pay money back and that she had asked the others without success.

Lord Matthews will make his decision at a later date.