In January 2025, Beverley Bennie, 37, was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment after she admitted embezzling a total of £96,371 from Kids Come First and vending firm Myrtle Coffee in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on 28 May 2025, the court made a confiscation order in the sum of £36,036.50 and recorded that the benefit of criminal conduct was £96,371.62.
She was given six months to pay the confiscation order.
The confiscation order can be revisited if further assets are identified in the future to be paid towards the full amount that was determined as the benefit of the crime.
Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said:
“Beverley Bennie was convicted of crimes that displayed a betrayal of trust by someone who had financial oversight of funds from a children’s charity and a family business.
“She showed no regard for the impact her crimes would have on vulnerable children or the effect it would have on those trying to run an honest business.
“We take such criminality very seriously. This confiscation order shows that the Crown will not stop at prosecution.
“Even after that conviction was secured, the Crown pursued Proceeds of Crime action to ensure funds she obtained illegally were confiscated.
“Confiscation orders have ongoing financial consequences, meaning we can seek to recover further assets from this individual in the future to reflect the full amount.
“These funds will be added to those already gathered from Proceeds of Crime and will be re-invested in Scottish communities through the CashBack for Communities programme.”
During a previous hearing, the court heard how Bennie was employed as a business manager with Myrtle Coffee, which supplies wholesale coffee and vending services.
Bennie’s job gave her access to the company’s system, and she was responsible for the petty cash as well as an electronic cash account.
The court was told that a fixed float of £20,000 was always held in the company safe and was also the responsibility of the accused.
But a financial review in August 2023 found the safe only contained £7610. An audit then revealed Bennie had carried out numerous fraudulent transactions between September 2017 and September 2023.
Company officials discovered she had inflated the values of genuine receipts, reversed some transactions, fabricated receipts, created false accounts and employed other methods to reduce and manipulate the petty cash balance.
The total amount obtained by the accused was £83,599.93.
The court was also told that in 2018, Bennie took on the role of treasurer with Kids Come First, a charity based at the Benarty Centre in Ballingry, Fife.
In 2021, it was revealed the charity had limited cash reserves and some staff members could not be paid.
Fife Council then instructed a forensic accountant to examine the accounts, and the results showed a number of unauthorised cash transfers totalling £12,771.69 made by accused between December 2020 and September 2021.