The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that Joseph Lowther has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of raping two schoolgirls and two adults over 20 years. The High Court in Edinburgh were told that Lowther raped an assaulted his victims at various Fife location and also committed serious sex assault on a woman who was asleep and incapable of consent.

The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that an office manager for an Edinburgh property firm, Emma Hunt, has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment. This follows Hunt being found guilty of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Hunt obtained over £900,000 by transferring rental payments from tenants to her personal account, requesting deposits that were not required and by creating false invoices for supplies and business expenses. Hunt’s scheme was uncovered after concerns surrounding company accounting activities were raised. A confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) will be used to recover the funds.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that the High Court in Edinburgh has issued a confiscation order of £167,698.71 against Michael Paterson, a former Aberdeen City Council employee, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002). The court also issued a compensation order, directing that £104,630.33 recovered through the proceedings be paid to Aberdeen City Council, which had already recovered £417,523 from Paterson's pension fund. The court recorded that Paterson’s benefit from criminal conduct amounted to £1,087,444, and the order remains subject to review if further assets are identified to recover the full benefit. Paterson was imprisoned for four years in July 2024 after pleading guilty to embezzling over £1m over a 17-year period. Between 2006 and 2023, he issued 622 false council tax refunds, diverting the funds into his own bank accounts. His fraud was discovered in September 2023 when a colleague reported an unusual refund of £2,899.81. Investigations revealed that, between 2006 and 2019, 490 refunds totalling £711,401.62 were paid into the same account in which Paterson received his salary, while an additional £376,000 was deposited into a separate account between 2019 and 2023.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that Martin Lang, Graeme Cullen, Leslie Thompson and Graham Newall have been sentenced to more than 22 years’ imprisonment for their roles in a multi-million-pound VAT payroll fraud against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Evidence presented in court showed that they operated a network of companies, including Linear Services in Livingston, through which they charged clients VAT on payroll services but failed to remit those funds to HMRC over a 21-month period. Between September 2015 and June 2017, the scheme defrauded HMRC of £8.8 million. COPFS has confirmed that confiscation proceedings will now be pursued under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover the illicit gains.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that Joanne Connell, a HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) employee, has been sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling £193,000 of taxpayers' money. Connell, who worked in the bankruptcy team, exploited her position and knowledge of HMRC's self-assessment system to create fraudulent credits and transfer funds to her personal account between April and September 2022. The court heard that Connell used the embezzled funds to pay off her mortgage and settle other debts. Despite being on sick leave, Connell continued to misappropriate funds. COPFS emphasised that this case demonstrates their commitment to prosecuting those who abuse public funds for personal gain. Connell will now face confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover the illegally obtained monies.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published a report about a charity manager who has been jailed for three years for defrauding two cancer foundations an amount of £95,000 by channeling it into family bank accounts. The 61 year old, Lindsay MacCallum, admitted to two fraudulent scheme charges that took place between 2011 and 2021 by obtaining an amount of £85,978.48 fraudulently from the Friends of Rainbow Valley charity and forging signatures of two former charity office-bearers of another charity, Aberfoyle Friends of Anthony Nolan Trust, defrauding it an amount of £9,505.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that Margaret Burnett, a charity worker at a Leonard Cheshire supported accommodation facility in Edinburgh, has been sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for embezzling £29,900 from five vulnerable and disabled residents between January 2014 and August 2016. Burnett illegally used residents’ bank cards to make unlogged withdrawals totalling £29,900. The court imposed a 12-month supervision order, a restriction of liberty order, and mandated compensation payments of £3,000 to each surviving victim within 28 days.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that a former lawyer, John Sinclair, has been jailed for two years after it was found that he embezzled £120,000 from a client who was suffering from dementia. The Law Society and the police were alerted to Sinclair’s actions after staff at James and George Collie Solicitors detected an unfamiliar account linked to the client’s finances. Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Sinclair attempted to cover up his actions by saying that he had the necessary authorisation. Sinclair was sentenced at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to two years’ imprisonment.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported the sentencing of Aasim Johar for colluding with the University of Edinburgh’s former assistant director of estates and buildings Geoff Turnbull, for a fraudulent procurement scheme. Johar has been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for being involved in the £3.3m fraud that operated between 2005 and 2015. Turnbull would regularly placed orders with Johar for quantities of cleaning products which were not required by the university, and which were rarely delivered. COPFS has also reported that confiscation proceedings will also be commenced to recover any financial benefit that was fraudulently obtained.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has reported that Thomas Robinson has been sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for a £500,000 fraud scheme involving counterfeit Scottish tea. Robinson operated The Wee Tea Plantation between January 2014–February 2019, selling imported Italian tea plants to luxury hotels and retailers at five times their original cost while falsely marketing them as Scottish-grown. Following an investigation by Food Standards Scotland, Robinson was found guilty of two fraudulent scheme charges. He will face confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to recover the illegally obtained funds totalling approximately £550,000.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has secured convictions against four men for NHS procurement fraud totalling £6m between 2010-2017. The High Court in Glasgow sentenced former NHS officials Alan Hush and Gavin Cox alongside Oricom Ltd directors Adam Sharoudi and Gavin Brown to combined prison terms of 29 years for bribery, corruption, fraud and Proceeds of Crime Act offences. The case involved systematic abuse of NHS procurement processes in exchange for cash and benefits. All defendants face confiscation proceedings, with Brown and Sharoudi receiving ten year director disqualifications.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has obtained a confiscation order for £668,726.71 against a woman previously jailed for embezzling £1.5m from an Aberdeen metal company. The High Court in Glasgow made the order, determining the total benefit from criminal conduct was £1,952,771.31. The court directed the entire confiscated sum be paid to the victim company through a compensation order. COPFS confirmed the confiscation order can be revisited if additional assets are identified in future to recover the full benefit amount.