Elaine Fox admitted taking £34,000 from the East Neuk Recovery Group Initiative

A charity boss has admitted using blank cheques to steal from the organisation she ran.

Elaine Fox was the manager of the East Neuk Recovery Group Initiative (Energi) for more than 15 years.

However the 51-year-old, of Ladybank in Fife, is now facing jail after pleading guilty to a charge of embezzling £34,136 from the charity between 1 January 2013 and 8 July 2017.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard this week that Fox as a co-signatory on the charity’s bank account and was in charge of writing cheques to cover the payroll for its 10 staff.

However the group’s finance officer noticed money was missing from the account, and when challenged Fox admitted she had taken “advances on her wages”.

The court heard that Fox pleaded for the staff member not to inform the charity’s board and said she would take a £25,000 loan out to repay the organisation.

Defence solicitor Laura McGillvery said Fox had paid back £15,900 to the charity since police intervened in the case.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and released Fox on bail meantime.