Mum bought lingerie and concert tickets after embezzling £10k from son's football team

Amanda Fraser, 46, was found to have embezzled more than £10,000 from East Kilbride Burgh FC in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, while working as the team's treasurer

A mum who embezzled more than £10,000 from her son's football team splashed the cash on concert tickets and lingerie, a court heard.

Amanda Fraser worked as the treasurer of East Kilbride Burgh FC in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, in 2009, and had permission to cover the team's costs during her tenure using club funds. But instead of using the money for its intended purpose, she bought train tickets, fuel, mobile phones, cinema trips, concert tickets and lingerie. The 46-year-old's serial embezzlements were not discovered until more than a decade later, however, when her successor took over.

Kulraj Purewal spotted errors in the books while carrying out an audit in 2021, ringing alarm bells and leading to accusations she had embezzled from the club between April 2017 and June 2021. She denied wrongoing, but police were called and the case went to trial, where she was convicted of embezzling £10,663.66 by Sheriff Eddie Gilroy.

The trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court heard Fraser had paid back some of the money but that the club was still £4,946.15 short.

The Daily Record reports that Mr Purewal, 43, told depute fiscal Rebecca Clark he could see "misalignment in the files", adding bank statements and transactions didn't match.

The accountant said: "Straight away I could see misalignment in the files provided to me by Amanda and the bank statements and transactions didn't match.

"The spend that had previously happened was excessive and there were supermarket transactions, car garages, lingerie, fuel, Scotrail tickets, mobile phones and concert tickets. There were a variety of transactions which did not tie in with the running of a football team, it was regular and it was excessive.

"It seemed to me that there was an embezzlement of club funds going on so I set up a meeting with the chairman and the secretary and took them through the evidence that I had seen and made them aware of it."

Fraser denied taking money from the club without permission, claiming she bought raffle prizes, treats for the young players, and supplies for the team.

She claimed to have been "a bit taken aback" when she was quizzed by police about the lingerie sets, because she didn't "shop online for lingerie". She said: "I was a bit taken aback when the police spoke to me about that because I don't shop online for lingerie and I would not use a kid's football team to buy lingerie."

The mum also claimed Mr Purewal and others gave her a "fairytale" version of how to run a football team. Sheriff Gilroy deferred her sentencing for next month, saying that while she had "crossed the custody threshold", it would be "unlikely" that she is sent to prison.