Thief stole £49,000 from her gran weeks after elderly woman was admitted to hospital

A thief who stole £49,000 from her grandmother within weeks of the elderly woman being admitted to hospital has been spared jail.

Nicola MacKenzie was told by a sheriff before whom she appeared for sentence that his priority was to ensure that her grandmother got her money back.

MacKenzie, a 40-year-old first offender, was given nine months to repay her “in full”.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard she already had £20,000 available to pay at once, and at least a further £25,000 would be available as soon as she and her husband sold a tenanted flat they had.

Sheriff William Gilchrist sentenced MacKenzie to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and placed her under social work supervision in addition to a £49,000 compensation order.

He warned her: “If you don’t comply with any element of this you’ll be brought back to court and almost certainly the only option will be a custodial sentence.”

The court heard MacKenzie was given power of attorney by her 72-year-old grandmother in 2018.

When the woman went into her bank in January 2019 to check on her finances after her spell in hospital, she was told her accounts had been closed.

Prosecutor Jamie Hillend said MacKenzie told her grandmother she had “consolidated” the money into Royal Bank of Scotland bonds but when the woman decided to cash the bonds in, she was told there were none in her name.

Mr Hillend said: “She contacted her solicitor because she was concerned that the accused had taken her money, and she wanted it back.”

A warrant was obtained to check MacKenzie’s bank accounts, and the money was found to have been transferred into accounts in MacKenzie’s name on November 21, 22 and 26, 2018 – just weeks after the elderly woman went into hospital.

By May 2019, the money was gone.

Mr Hillend said: “A review of the spending on all the accounts was carried out, which confirmed that a total figure of £49,000 had been misappropriated by the accused.”

MacKenzie, of Bridge of Allan, pleaded guilty to embezzlement.

Solicitor Alastair Ross, defending, said MacKenzie had spent the money on “property improvement type work”.

He said: “She is horrified to find herself in this position.

“The difficulty has been a failure by her to properly comply with the requirements of an attorney.

“She had a life where her gran had been very generous to her, and she effectively continued that in the expectation that was what her grandmother wanted her to do, but failed to make the transition from being a granddaughter to being an attorney.”

Mr Ross said there had been “no contact” between MacKenzie and her grandmother for some time.

But he said: “It is her [MacKenzie’s] desire that the relationship will be rebuilt.”

After the case MacKenzie was ushered away before she could be asked by the press for a comment.