A Scottish finance director who admitted embezzling £100,000 from the accountancy company PricewaterhouseCoopers was jailed for two years on Friday.
David Logan, 37, appeared before Sheriff Mhairi Stephen at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday having previously pleaded guilty to embezzling the money from PricewaterhouseCoopers between 1 January, 2000, and 21 January, 2002.
Sentencing for the crime had been deferred for background reports.
Logan, of East Kilbride, a married man with three young children, had been employed by the company and its predecessor firms since 1988 at offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
He was promoted on several occasions, and, at the time the offence was uncovered, was a finance director in Edinburgh. Logan resigned from the firm in February 2002.
Fiscal Alison Di Rollo said Logan was a senior manager in the division that dealt with liquidations and insolvencies. In January 2002, an insolvency administrator came across a bank transaction relating to an account for an estate which she knew had been closed some time previously.
The record showed that a cheque for £22,565.21 received from HM Customs and Excise had been paid into the account.
The fiscal added: “The administrator recognised the cheque as she had previously given it to the accused to be sent back to Customs and Excise.
“She thought the accused had done this. However, records showed that the money had been banked and then drawn on twice by way of two cheque payments”.
This was reported to one of the firm’s partners.
The cheques were obtained from the banks and it was discovered that one of them, for £7,500, had been made payable to a “P Smith” and the other to a Visa credit card account.
Further inquiries showed that the Visa account was in the accused’s name and that “P Smith” was his wife, Pauline, Smith being her maiden name.
Confronted by senior officials on 5 February, 2002, Logan admitted having carried out the transactions and others on a number of occasions and tendered his resignation.
