A Finance Manager from a West Lothian recruitment firm defrauded her company out of £600,000 before her dishonesty was uncovered when she decided to help a workmate who had been refused a pay rise.

The Finance Manager, 41, decided to fund her colleague’s salary increase personally by paying her out of the cash she was stealing from the company.

The workmate, however, went to bosses to find out why she was being paid the same salary from the company’s account, but getting the increase in cash from her manager.

An investigation found that the Finance Manager had set up a monthly standing order for herself, and had been siphoning off huge amounts of money - totalling £597,944.06 taken between February 2006 and October 2011.

On being jailed for three years, the court heard that; “There is no other method of dealing with this given the seriousness of the offence and the very high value.”

The accused admitted that she’d used the embezzled funds to pay off her credit cards, starting just six months after she joined the firm as finance manager. The funds had been transferred to a joint bank account she held with her husband.

She also admitted that she’d increased her own salary.

Even when she admitted the extent of her dishonesty, the company was reluctant to call the police until it became clear there was no way she could repay such a large sum.