Nadine McAleney, 34, stole £27,000 from East Renfrewshire’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) between April 2019 and November 2020.
Prosecutors from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) gathered evidence which showed she attempted to cover up her crimes by altering a financial spreadsheet after she had cashed cheques allotted for clients.
At Paisley Sheriff Court, McAleney, of Bathgate, West Lothian, was given a community payback order and ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to a charge of embezzlement.
She was also made subject of a restriction of liberty order for a period of 12 months.
Anne Marie Hicks, Procurator Fiscal for North Strathclyde, said:
“Nadine McAleney committed an egregious betrayal of trust by taking advantage of her position to embezzle money that was set aside to help the most vulnerable people in our society.
“She showed no regard for the impact her crimes would have on vulnerable adults and children who relied on support from East Renfrewshire’s Health and Social Care Partnership.
“She has now been brought to account for her crimes.
“Embezzlement is not a victimless crime. COPFS prosecutors are fully committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.”
McAleney was employed as a Business Improvement Assistant at the local authority and had sole access to a client money spreadsheet which kept track of outgoing funds.
Her job included cashing cheques to be distributed to those clients and then updating the spreadsheet.
But McAleney instead cashed the cheques for herself and then altered the spreadsheet to make it appear that the accounts balanced.
In September 2020, another council employee who was brought in to help the accused maintain the accounts noticed a number of discrepancies and alerted management.
A full financial investigation found hidden lines and columns had been inserted into the spreadsheet to cover up fraudulent activity.
Following that investigation, it was found that £27,000 was unaccounted for, with some cheques having been presented to the bank but not recorded in the spreadsheet.
When interviewed by the police, McAleney admitted having stolen the money, stating that she used it for daily living expenses.