{"id":430078,"date":"2025-09-17T01:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430078\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:13:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:13:20","slug":"edinburgh-charity-worker-embezzling-almost-30000-from-care-home-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430078\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh charity worker embezzling almost \u00a330,000 from care home residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Edinburgh charity worker has been sentenced after embezzling nearly \u00a330,000 from vulnerable and disabled care home residents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Margaret Burnett stole the money from five residents at a Leonard Cheshire home in the capital between January 2014 and August 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 69-year-old was a team leader at the supported accommodation facility when she illegally used bank cards belonging to five residents to make numerous withdrawals from their accounts.<\/p>\n

She had been employed at the charity for 13 years.<\/p>\n

Staff controlled the residents\u2019 finances, and all transactions involving their accounts were officially logged in a cash book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As team leader, Burnett had access to the home\u2019s safe and a locked cabinet containing residents\u2019 banking cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Royal Bank of Scotland contacted the charity in September 2016 after it identified\u00a0ATM withdrawals totalling several hundred pounds from one resident\u2019s account.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials from the charity then discovered several withdrawals of between \u00a3100 and \u00a3300 which had not been recorded in logbooks or the residents\u2019 diaries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The home\u2019s management alerted police to the situation, and a subsequent investigation found that Burnett had accessed the bank accounts of five vulnerable service users.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court heard that Burnett used the bank card of one victim while he was in hospital\u00a0and \u201cphysically unable to withdraw the cash\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One victim, who has since died, had cerebral palsy, while another suffered from multiple sclerosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burnett was suspended and then dismissed from her job before being arrested in November 2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was handed a 12-month supervision order and made the subject of a restriction of liberty order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ex-charity worker was also ordered to pay the victims of her offending who are still alive \u00a33,000 each in compensation within 28 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neil Almond, interim procurator fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said: \u201cMargaret Burnett committed an egregious betrayal of trust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese residents depended on her to play a part in their financial arrangements. But she flagrantly abused her position to use their money for her own benefit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the public be assured that we take such financial criminality extremely seriously.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who commit this type of offending will be dealt with robustly by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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