Jacqueline Robertson, employed as a cleaning manager with the NHS, embazzled money from doctors paying for accommodation to feed her gambling habit.
Jacqueline Robertson pleaded guilty to stealing the cash from medics working at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.(Image: Alexander Lawrie)
A gambling addict who embezzled thousands of pounds from doctors while working at the capital’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children has escaped a jail sentence.
Jacqueline Robertson, 60, stole more than £8000 from medics who had handed over cash payments to stay overnight at the hospital to feed her “out of control” gambling addiction.
Robertson was employed as a cleaning manager with the NHS at the time with one of her duties to collect accommodation payments from the doctors and process the transactions at her office.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the cleaning boss began taking the money while she was spending up to £100 per day on online gambling sites.
Robertson pleaded guilty to embezzling £8630 while working at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh between January 1 and November 12, 2018 when she appeared at the city’s sheriff court last month.
She returned to the dock for sentencing yesterday (MON) where Sheriff Gillian Sharp imposed a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody.
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Robertson was placed under the supervision of the social work department for three years and will have to carry out the maximum term allowed of 300 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff Sharp also imposed a compensation order where Robertson will have to pay back a total £10,300 to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in monthly instalments over the next three years.
Prosecutor Peter Finnon told the court Robertson was employed as the hospital’s domestic supervisor and was responsible for taking payments from doctors who were staying overnight on the premises.
Mr Finnon said: “The process for that was doctors would meet Ms Robertson in person usually at the end of the month and pay for the night spent in cash.
“It was Ms Robertson’s responsibility to take the cash to the office to be processed.
“There was no residency payments made to NHS Lothian through that period.
“The figure covers a number of doctors who resided at the hospital at that time.”
The fiscal said the deceit was eventually uncovered and Robertson had ” candidly accepted the nature of what she did” when being questioned by police officers.
Solicitor James McMacken, defending, said his client had been employed by the NHS for seven years initially as a cleaner and then as the assistant manager of the department.
The lawyer told the court Robertson had been using an app on her phone to gamble and her addiction had “quickly got out of control and she was spending up to £100 per day.”
Mr McMacken said she subsequently found herself “in a deep financial hole” and began stealing the cash from the doctors at the hospital over an 11 month period.
He added Robertson, of Stenhouse, Edinburgh, was “extremely remorseful for her conduct” and has “expressed deep regret to find herself here”.