Payback offer over £14k fraud – but Wick woman will face Christmas behind bars if deal broken

Fraudster Fiona Taylor has undertaken to repay the £14,000 she stole from an 88-year-old man.

However, if she is not as good as her word, she will be celebrating Christmas behind bars, a sheriff has warned.

Taylor (66) was originally charged with defrauding Albert Millington of £40,000 but the indictment was amended.

She then admitted having pretended to him that she required funds to meet his living expenses and home repairs and had instead spent the money on herself and had obtained the cash by fraud. The court heard that she had gambled some of the money.

The unexpected offer of compensation was made through Taylor's solicitor, Sylvia Maclennan, at Wick Sheriff Court this week and accepted by Sheriff Neil Wilson.

Miss Maclennan said that Taylor, of Glamis Road, Wick, had £4000 which would be made over to Mr Millington and monthly repayments of £500 would be put in until the debt was cleared.

Matters will be reviewed on December 13 when Sheriff Wilson expects to learn that Taylor's good intentions have been realised.

The sheriff stressed that if the financial arrangements were not carried out to the letter he would have "no hesitation in jailing the accused for 10 months".

Taylor got to know Mr Millington when she operated a taxi service in Wick and ran him about. But the accused abused the friendship and used it to cheat him out of £14,000 between December 2015 and July 2016.

The protracted case has been going on for more than two years and has been fraught with delays mainly about Taylor's fitness to plead and her reluctance to face the music.