A TEACHER who raided funds for school trips and stole from colleagues to fund a drink habit is facing jail.
Social sciences teacher Jennifer Ferguson, 35, raided desks and drawers to fund her habit of drinking a bottle of vodka a day.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that a series of petty thefts had been taking place at the 950-pupil Balfron High School in West Stirlingshire, one of the top state schools in Scotland.
Then, in June 2015, Ferguson was caught on CCTV going into the school over the weekend and leaving again.
Officials investigated and found £195 of school trip money was missing from a colleague’s desk. Trays had been moved to get at the cash, which was underneath.
Police were called in, and Ferguson was arrested on the Monday morning outside the Spar supermarket in Balfron, before she could re-enter the school.
Local police officer Steven Graham, 43, said it had been decided to detain Ferguson outwith the school “to save her embarrassment”.
She was placed in a police van, and taken “upset and tearful” to Greenock police station. Mr Graham said: “She went from initially denying the allegations to admitting them.”
He said his colleague Derek Burn had asked her: “How do you feel about what you have done?”
Ferguson replied: “Disgusted.”
Mr Graham added: “She was embarrassed at what she had done to her colleagues.”
Mr Burn said: “She gave ‘special knowledge’ admissions in relation to some of the thefts.
“She was on her way to teach pupils when she was stopped, and said she had drunk a bottle of vodka in the last 24 hours.”
Ferguson, of Hardgate, West Dunbartonshire, pled guilty to four charges of stealing a total of £255, some belonging to colleagues and some collected for school trips.
The thefts were from various rooms at Balfron High School between October 24, 2014 and June 15, 2015.
She had initially denied the charges, with her solicitor Paul Reid arguing her police interview had been unfair.
But she changed her plea after a so-called “trial-within-a-trial”
and legal argument that stretched over two days.
Sheriff Wyllie Roberston deferred sentence until March 21 for background reports.
Mr Reid said he would give his speech in mitigation at the sentencing hearing, but added that Ferguson had been, and still was, suffering from anxiety and alcohol problems.
Warning Ferguson to co-operate with social workers, Sheriff Robertson told her: “If, on the next occasion when you come to court, you say you have heard nothing [from the social work department] but done nothing about it, other proce- dural avenues may have to be addressed.”
A spokeswoman for Stirling Council, the education authority that controls Balfron High School, said: “This individual is no longer an employee of Stirling Council.”
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