Clacks woman stole from elderly mother to feed gambling habit
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A TULLIBODY woman spent more than £10,000 of her elderly mother's money, most of it squandered on gambling sites.
The victim's bank account was emptied to the point where there was no money left to pay her bills.
Lillias McLennan, of Craigleith View, Tullibody, she admitted that between October 7 last year and February 17, she stole a sum of money from her mother.
Depute fiscal Susannah Hutchison said the victim was McLennan's 81-year-old mother who suffers from various medical conditions.
The matter came to light when there no money left in the woman's accounts to pay her power bills.
Investigations revealed that £7418 went to Betfair and £1605 to Star Spins, while other payments included those to Amazon and BT. There was also a cash withdrawal of £1870.
McLennan later told a family member the losses had be run up playing online bingo.
The 56-year-old, who represented herself at court, said from the dock: "I'm feeling so ashamed. I'm sorry for all the hurt I've caused my family and my mum. I'll live with this for the rest of my life. I don't gamble anymore."
She said she had not returned any of the money so far but claimed, "I'm going to pay back every penny."
Sheriff Neil Bowie told McLennan: "This was a gross breach of trust against your elderly mother. It was a prolonged activity over a number of months."
He said he would not impose a compensation order as there were other legal channels through which the money could be recovered by the victim.
The sheriff imposed a community payback order with 120 hours of unpaid work and 12 months of supervision.
