Fury as former cops are spared jail for embezzling £60,000 from elderly mother
A FORMER policeman and his wife who helped themselves to £60,000 from his mother’s bank account have been spared jail after their elderly victim pleaded for a court to show them mercy.
But last night prosecutors said they may appeal the judge’s decision which saw Andrew and Jean Rough walk free from court.
The couple drained the bank accounts of frail Gladys Rough over a period of almost five years, using the money to pay the mortgage of an upmarket new home, splashing out
on a garden summer house and laser eye surgery, and spending up to £700-a-month on groceries.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard they used the 86-year-old “like a cash machine”.
Rough and his wife, also an ex-police officer, were found guilty of embezzlement and warned they faced jail.
A prison sentence effectively excludes any realistic prospect of compensation
But yesterday Sheriff William Gilchrist sentenced them instead to 300 hours of unpaid work and ordered them to pay Mrs Rough £12,000 compensation each, under a three-year order.
Onlookers on the public benches muttered “disgrace” when the sentence was announced.
Sheriff Gilchrist told the Roughs: “In such cases, it is inevitable that the court will start from the premise of a custodial sentence. However, I do not intend to send you to prison.
“A prison sentence effectively excludes any realistic prospect of compensation and I think that’s an important feature of what must happen.”
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He added: “Your actions were dishonest but I agree with the writer of the social work report that there were also problems of naivety, recklessness and negligence – rashness – in your decision making.
"The jury clearly rejected your defence that you had Mrs Rough’s consent to spend her money but I think it likely that, if you had sought her consent, then she would have granted it, for at least some of the expenditure.”
Sheriff Gilchrist continued: “I am conscious that she (the victim) did state that she did not want to see you go to prison.
“That is another factor I have taken into account.”
Rough, a former detective sergeant with the then Central Scotland Police, once won a bravery award for saving someone from a knife attack.
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Last night, prosecutors indicated they were considering appealing Sheriff Gilchrist’s decision not to jail the Roughs.
A Crown Office spokeswoman said: “As with all cases, the Crown will consider the sentence and give consideration to whether it might be unduly lenient.”
The Crown has the right to appeal against “unduly lenient” sentences.
For an appeal to succeed, a so-called “soft” sentence must be outside the range of sentences which a sentencer, taking account of all relevant factors, could “reasonably” have imposed.