Cashroom employee faces jail for taking £178,000

A cashroom employee at a major legal firm has been told she faces jail after pleading guilty to embezzling more than £178,000 from the firm over a five year period.

Teresa Kidd, a purchase ledger supervisor at Maclay Murray & Spens' Glasgow office, took £178,696 between October 2006 and November 2011 by exploiting the firm's system when employees had to manually input bank details on paying invoices, submitting a second invoice with her personal account details. An employee of the firm for more than 20 years, she had been promoted to a position where she was responsible for making payments to clients, creditors and beneficiaries from its corporate bank account.

Kidd (44) was remanded in custody by Sheriff John McCormick, who told her a custodial sentence was "almost inevitable" when she appeared again next month.