Embezzler given chance

THE treasurer of a grandparents’ self-help group helped himself to cash raised for the charity’s funds, a court heard.

Richard Stedman embezzled £500 from a charity shop donation. He told a court he took the cash to spend on food because he had huge credit card debts and could not afford to eat.

The 63 year-old was caught because he failed to file annual accounts for Grandparents Apart self-help charity with the Office of the Charity Regulator.

Office bearers at the group discovered the £500 had not been accounted for.

Stedman of Fauldhouse, West Lothian, appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday. He earlier pled guilty to embezzling the money in 2009. Sheriff Douglas Kinloch deferred sentence for six months to give him a chance to repay the cash.