A LOSSIEMOUTH WOMAN is beginning a five-month jail sentence today after she admitted stealing £790 from the bank account of a recently bereaved friend.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard that Victoria Gordon, 32, had first become friends with the wife of 62-year-old Fred Martin before she sadly passed away.
She continued to be a regular visitor to Mr Martin’s home – but his trust in the younger woman proved to be unfounded when she took his Post Office account card and used it to make three withdrawals on August 14 last year.
The only defence Gordon could provide for her actions was that she was addicted to drugs at the time of the theft. In court her agent Matthew O’Neill said: “The opportunity presented itself to her and she foolishly and appallingly took the card.
“She cannot explain it beyond saying she was addicted to heroin.”
Sentencing Gordon to five months, Sheriff John Rafferty noted she had a prior record of crimes of dishonesty and had this time taken advantage of a man who was disabled and who she described as a friend.
He concluded: “You had opportunities to realise you had done something wrong and return the card – you did not do that, you did the opposite and used it multiple times over three days.”