Woman embezzled £49,000 from a Glasgow company and transferred the money to her daughter’s bank account

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

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

Khan, a trainee accountant, abused her position in the purchasing and finance team to duplicate invoice payments.

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

Khan was caught after a final fraudulent payment was flagged in the company’s financial system and an investigation was launched.

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

Sheriff Gerard Bonnar sentenced Khan, from Springburn, to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.

The court had previously heard that Khan was hired by the firm in April 2018 to work on the company’s accounting system.

Khan captured supplier invoices, created payment proposals and uploaded the details into the banking software.

Management demanded that Khan be investigated for a “fraudulent transaction.”

Prosecutor Lauren Donnelly said: “The transaction came to light when an accountant at the company noticed that an invoice to a subcontractor had apparently been processed twice in the financial system.”

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

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

Five more fraudulent transactions were uncovered.

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

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

In addition, four further transactions with companies were described.

Ms Donnelly added: “The payments were processed by registering a valid supplier invoice twice and changing the supplier’s bank details in the master file so that the first payment was redirected to Khan’s account.

“The second payment was made to the supplier’s valid bank account.”

A meeting was held between the company and Khan, during which she admitted to fraudulently diverting payments from suppliers to the bank accounts.

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

She told the company that she had repaid £4,284 on the day of her suspension, which was later confirmed.

Khan subsequently repaid a further £44,635.99 with a note saying “refund” on the bank statement.

Khan was later arrested and interrogated by police, where she made further relevant confessions.

Defence lawyer Jim Clarke told the court that the crime occurred against the backdrop of a “disturbing situation” in Khan’s life.

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