Woman embezzled £49,000 from Glasgow firm and funnelled cash into daughter's bank account

A woman embezzled £49,000 from her employer and funnelled some of the cash her into daughter’s bank account.

Sabina Khan, 55, took the money from construction and asset management firm Currie & Brown based in Glasgow city centre.

Trainee accountant Khan abused her position on the purchasing and finance team to duplicate invoice payments.

A total of six bogus transactions took place between January and April 2019.

Khan was caught after a final fraudulent payment was flagged on the company’s finance system and an investigation took place.

First offender Khan pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to embezzling a total of £49,635.99.

Sheriff Gerard Bonnar ordered Khan, of the city’s Springburn, to do 180 hours of unpaid work.

The court earlier heard Khan was employed by the firm in April 2018 to work on the company’s accounting system.

Khan registered supplier invoices, prepared payment proposals and loaded the details into the bank software.

Senior management requested that an investigation be carried out on Khan due to a “fraudulent transaction.”

Prosecutor Lauren Donnelly said: “The transaction came to light when an accountant for the firm noticed an invoice to a sub-contractor appeared to have been processed twice on the finance system.

“An internal investigation revealed that Khan was responsible for making the duplicate transaction.”

Khan was suspended from her role in July 2019 pending a full investigation.

A further five fraudulent transactions were recovered.

The court was told of separate transactions of £6,000 and £16,969 were made out to two companies.

Ms Donnelly said: “The sums were fraudulently diverted to an account in the name of the daughter of Khan in January 2019.”

A further four transactions to companies were also described.

Ms Donnelly added: “The payments were processed by registering a valid supplier invoice twice, making changes to the supplier’s master file bank details such that the first payment was diverted to Khan’s account.

“The second payment went to the valid supplier bank account.”

A meeting was held by the company and Khan when she made admissions of fraudulently diverting supplier payments to the bank accounts.

Khan resigned from her role at the end of the meeting.

She informed the company that she had paid back £4,284 on the date of her suspension which was later confirmed.

Khan went on to pay back a further £44,635.99 with the reference: “Refund” on the bank statement.

Khan was later arrested by police and interviewed when she continued to make relevant admissions.

Jim Clarke, defending, told the court that the conduct took place amid a “distressing background” in Khan’s life.