Cocaine addict admits six figure embezzlement from second building firm
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A cocaine addicted financial controller has admitted embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds for a second time to fund her lavish lifestyle.
Kerryanne Clarke from Coatbridge pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to taking more than £250,000 from Bell Building Projects in Govan using company money and a credit card.
Her conviction comes after her previously being jailed for three years for embezzling £372,163 from another construction company, Elmwood Construction Services, having been convicted of that crime in February 2017.
This week saw Clarke, 40, admit embezzling £254,735 between July 2014 and January 2017 from BBP, also a commercial and industrial construction company.
The cash was used for a spending spree that included a £2,581 bill at the Atlantis Palm Hotel in Dubai and £3,778 for an all-inclusive hotel in Tenerife.
She also bought other luxury goods to mask from her family her £180-a-day on cocaine habit.
The court heard during the investigation into her earlier crimes, suspicious transactions relating to BBP alerted detectives to further offences.
Clarke began working for the company in July 2014 as the financial controller, earning £38,000.
Procurator fiscal depute Deborah Carroll said Clarke spent £16,738 alone on the credit card and spent cash that “should have been used for legitimate payments and expenses for the company”.
The court heard in January 2015 she spent money on a stay at Hotel Du Vin and later a holiday to Tenerife at the five-star Hotel Gran Tacande.
The following summer she enjoyed a lavish holiday in Dubai as well as “other luxury goods”.
Clarke was released early from her prison sentence and in April 2018 was arrested and questioned by police about her latest crime.
She admitted the embezzlement and told them of her cocaine addiction.
The court heard her family knew nothing about her drug problem.
Sheriff John McCormick deferred sentence for reports and continued her bail.
Her previous theft from Elmwood took place between September 2010 and July 2014, she transferred funds into her personal accounts in over 360 transactions.
Around Christmas 2014, 92 employees were made redundant as a result before Clarke was jailed.
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