Fringe Society finance chief sells family house to repay £220,000 she embezzled

Lynn Taylor, 56, worked for the Edinburgh Fringe Society, which runs the world famous annual event, when she siphoned off employer contribution pension payments totalling £220,331 directly into own bank account between June 1, 2008, and March 13, 2015.

She had started work with the Society as a Chartered Accountant in 1994.

When interviewed by the police, Taylor told them: “I did it, bottom line, no two ways about it, completely on my own without any involvement of any other person within or outwith the organisation.

“I am not going to deny something I did. It has totally destroyed my life and I am never going to work again.”

She told police she really did not know how much she had taken.

Prior to sentencing, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard she had repaid all the money and an extra £40,000 to meet the costs of the investigation.

Repayment had come from the sale of the family home in Edinburgh. She suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the deaths of family members in 2002/2003.

Sheriff Frank Crowe placed Taylor on an eight-month restriction of liberty order confining her to her home between 9pm to 6am.

She was also ordered her to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work under a 12-month community payback order.