A former hospice nurse has avoided jail after he embezzled £17,000 from a children’s charity to fund his gambling habit.
Alan Thorburn, from Tranent, East Lothian, started working with Dreamflight, which takes seriously ill children on holidays to Florida, in 2014.
The 40-year-old was one of two regional organisers for the east of Scotland. He was given a bank card and had online access to the charity’s fundraising savers account.
A colleague later noticed that the account number and sort code had changed. This issue was raised with Thorburn, however, he claimed Barclays had set up an alternative account without consulting him and agreed to close it down.
In February 2018, another charity worker queried the amount of money raised from a fundraising ball.
Following an internal investigation it was found that the cash had been transferred into the account Thorburn previously claimed he would close.
It was then discovered that £17,106 had been transferred into the 40-year-old’s account.
Thorburn admitted to the charge of embezzlement between January 2015 and March 2018. He was ordered to perform 280 hours of unpaid work at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on October 2 and has since repaid the full amount of stolen cash.
Lynne Barrie, Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said: “This was a shocking breach of trust by an employee who was responsible for managing funds raised by a children’s charity.
“The money which Alan Thorburn stole was donated by members of the public in good faith, intended to be used to take children with a serious illness or disability on a holiday of a lifetime.
“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is committed to tackling financial crime and ensuring that those who commit offences against vulnerable individuals are brought to justice.”
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