Accountant gets year in Prison for bad money management.

Dear All

A simple tale of ordinary folk who needed more!

An accountant stole almost £130,000 as he funded his girlfriend's "luxury" lifestyle has been jailed for a year.

It seemed that he was under pressure to keep her happy.

Andrew Rennie, 26, splashed out on £38,000 for designer jewellery, clothes and cosmetic surgery, and bought a flat for them to live in.

That was terribly nice of him.

In today’s me me me society, he pressurised because his partner "enjoyed the good life", don’t we all.

Rennie admitted taking the money from the Don Fishing Company Ltd while working as an accounts assistant between September 2004 and December 2005.

A fishy tale indeed, bosses had signed blank cheques for him to fill in for work purposes which he then cashed into his own bank account.

How very trusting of them; I wonder if they considered him; a friend?

Rennie, who was in debt, first took £10,000 to pay the deposit on a mortgage. This seems to me that he needs to get a refresher course to brush up his skills or perhaps gets a second job.

Fiscal depute Ian Warburton said: "As part of his duties, he was responsible for the rationing and the completion of company cheques."He would take the cheques to one of two signatories to be signed. "It was company policy at the time that they signed blank cheques and simply handed them back to Mr Rennie for completion.

"It became clear there were a number of unexplained payments from the company bank account and a number of discrepancies came to light."

As a victim of financial crime committed by staff at the University of Glasgow; I can entirely understand the Prosecution being unhappy.

The court heard Rennie handed police receipts for a number of "luxury goods" and admitted stealing when he was caught.

I see that Rennie has opted for a plea of mitigation under the Criminal Procedures (Scotland) Act; he must have a good lawyer who is going for 20% off his sentence.

Section 196 (1) of the 1995 Act.

Just as well; he was probably bang to rights and didn’t have a leg to stand on.

As a gesture of how sorry he was, Rennie has paid back £85,000 which is no small amount; I wonder how he got his hands on this amount of cash?

So, he gets a year in prison and the chance to consider his position and future employment opportunities.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University