Shocking breach of trust

A former hospice worker has narrowly avoided prison after being found guilty of embezzling £17,000 from a children’s charity.

Alan Thorburn transferred the cash donated to Dreamflight into his own bank account.

The charity takes ill children on dream holidays to places such as Florida. It was co-founded in 1986 by Patricia Pearce and Derek Pereira who, previously worked with British Airways and had helped raise money for underprivileged children.

Thorburn blamed the theft on an out-of-control gambling habit.

The 40-year-old from Tranent, East Lothian, pled guilty to a charge of embezzlement between January 2015 and March 2018 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on September 3.

However at his sentencing hearing, Thorburn avoided a jail term.

Instead he was given a community payback order and was ordered to perform 280 hours of unpaid work.

Thorburn started working with the charity around 2014 and had been given a role as one of two regional organisers for the east of Scotland.

He was given a bank card and granted online access to the charity’s fundraising savers account.

Colleagues discovered that the fundraising account’s number and sort code had changed. When one raised the matter, the accused claimed Barclays had set up an alternative account without consulting him and agreed to close it down.

Subsequently, another worker queried the amount of money raised from a fundraising ball. This led to an internal investigation which revealed that cash had been transferred into the account Thorburn had previously said he would close.

Lynne Barrie, Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders, told Thorburn: “This was a shocking breach of trust by an employee who was responsible for managing funds raised by a children’s charity.

“The money which Alan Thorburn stole was donated by members of the public in good faith, intended to be used to take children with a serious illness or disability on a holiday of a lifetime.

“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is committed to tackling financial crime and ensuring that those who commit offences against vulnerable individuals are brought to justice.”