Former Edinburgh nursery manager faces jail after embezzling £8,000 from employer

She stole the cash while she was working as the nursery manager.

A nursery school manager is facing a jail sentence after she admitted embezzling more than £8,000 from her employer.

Tessa Hamilton, 35, stole the cash from the pre school business while she was working as the manager at the Strawberry Hill Nursery in Edinburgh.

Hamilton was the only employee responsible for handling child care payments and discovered a loophole in the payment system to embezzle the large amount of cash over an 18 month period.

Tessa Hamilton is facing a jail sentence after she admitted embezzling more than £8,000 from her employer.

But the nursery boss was eventually caught out when she left her employment and financial “irregularities” were uncovered by nursery management.

Hamilton pleaded guilty to an amended charge of embezzling £8062 while working as manager of Strawberry Hill Nursery, Minto Street, Edinburgh, between January 1, 2016 and August 16, 2017.

She was originally charged with embezzling £19,520 but prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to the  reduced amount when she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday.

Fiscal depute Peter Finnon told the court Hamilton, of Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, was the manager of the Edinburgh nursery and had left her employment in August 2017.

Mr Finnon said: “After leaving, her position was filled by an area manager and a number of irregularities became apparent. The first being an invoice from Edinburgh Leisure in relation to a sum of approximately £3000.

“A balance had been outstanding of £3072 but Ms Hamilton had been paying a direct debit from her personal bank account.

“This led to an audit of all cash payments coming into Strawberry Hill at that time and Ms Hamilton was the only person responsible for handling and banking cash.”

The fiscal said Hamilton had worked out a flaw in the nursery payment system by creating a second account to “disguise the lack of payment” when parents paid upfront for childcare in cash.

Mr Finnon added: “Ms Hamilton was questioned about this by Strawberry Hill themselves but could not provide any information in relation to the irregularities. When questioned by police she provided a no comment interview.”

Sheriff Gillian Sharp said due to “the nature of the charge and the quantity of money involved” sentence was being deferred for reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.

Strawberry Hill Nursery has since changed its name to Corner House Nursery The Grange and is owned by Thrive Childcare and Education who run 24 nurseries in Scotland.

Thrive Childcare and Education has been contacted for comment.