Barry Mackland was found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh of defrauding three agricultural firms in a swindle worth £630,000 by obtaining money through false pretences.

He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on August 14, 2025.

Mackland, 50, of Aberdeen, pretended to other businesses that the cheques he presented to them for tractors and machinery would be honoured if they were handed to a bank.

However, those companies lost out as there were insufficient funds in Mackland’s account to make the payments, but he still obtained goods worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Moira Orr, who leads on Major Crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “Fraud is not a victimless crime. It strikes at and erodes the basis of trust upon which all businesses rightly depend. We take such criminality very seriously.

“Businesses and individuals suffered considerable financial harm as a consequence of Barry Mackland’s crimes.

“But thanks to partnership working between Police Scotland and the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service, he has been brought to account for his crimes.

“As prosecutors, we are wholly committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.”

Mackland’s offending took place between March 2022 and June 2022 and involved two firms in Forfar, one in Stonehaven and a fourth in Lincolnshire.

Evidence led in court by prosecutors revealed how he persuaded the Scottish dealers to supply him with vehicles to the value of £500,000 knowing the cheques he used as payment would bounce.

Payment was never made and the vehicles were not returned.

And he pretended to the company in Lincolnshire that he would supply them with a JCB for £52,200 and then failed to supply the vehicle or return the money.

In total, the overall value of his fraudulent activity was put at £630,000.

Mackland will now be subject to confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime laws to recover funds illegally obtained.