Worker paid for treats with her company card

Sold home to repay her former bosses

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A Coatbridge office manager who helped herself to Celtic tickets and other treats with the company credit card has dodged jail after selling her home to repay her former bosses.

Karen Fitzpatrick siphoned off cash from PBR Building Services for almost five years.

The 54-year-old admitted embezzling £55,000 from the firm in her home town.

Single mum Fitzpatrick worked for the company for 17 years and latterly her two sons joined the workforce.

She was caught after bosses learned that £1000 had been spent on a private car number plate for her son.

Fitzpatrick had been accused of embezzling £197,597.85, but her guilty plea to a reduced charge was accepted.

Airdrie Sheriff Court heard she took the money between January 2016 and November 2020.

Colleagues were shocked at the scale of her deception.