Edinburgh crime: Anika Allan pleads guilty to using friend's credit card to pay for car and hotels

She used the card to pay for the car deposit and several hotel stays.

An Edinburgh property executive used her best friend’s bank card to pay for a deposit on a brand new Mercedes in a cruel fraud.

Anika Allan, 38, used the card belonging to longtime pal Anna Renton to fund the first instalment on the luxury motor as well as using the woman’s account to pay for several hotel stays.

Allan worked at the same Edinburgh residential property and investment company where Ms Renton was the managing director and the pair had been “best friends” for around 17 years. The close relationship had seen the pair go on several foreign holidays together with their families and their children regularly played with each other.

Anika Allan used her best friend’s bank card to pay for a deposit on a brand new Mercedes

But Allan abused the friendship when she used Ms Renton’s bank card to put down a £2,000 deposit on a car at a Mercedes dealership in August 2019.

The mother-of-two also used the card to fund several hotel stays but was caught out when Ms Renton was contacted by her bank and made her aware of the unauthorised transactions.

The matter was reported to the police and a subsequent investigation showed Allan, of the capital’s Cammo area, had been responsible for the fraudulent use of the Barclaycard bank card. Following her arrest Allan left the capital property firm and started up her own business specialising in Spanish baby wear and offering a bespoke nursery interior design service.

Allan’s LinkedIn profile states she is a “professional, versatile and hard working individual” with a “demonstrated sales record and proven leadership skills”. She describes herself as having “a keen attention to detail and quality”, possesses “a high degree of initiative and motivation” and “thrives on a challenge and the opportunity to excel and deliver”.

Allan pleaded guilty to fraudulently paying for a deposit on a Mercedes and hotel bookings totalling £2,753.87 between January and November 2019 when she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

She returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday after the court was previously told she was paying all the money back.

Defence agent James Stewart told Sheriff Peter McCormack that his client had deposited a cheque with the Crown Office but the funds had not yet cleared.

The sheriff said he was not willing to sentence Allan until he was satisfied all the cash had been paid back to Ms Renton. Ms Renton and her family were in the public gallery to see Allan punished but will have to return to the court after the sentencing hearing was further deferred to next month.