A CHURCH treasurer who embezzled more than £70,000 from her local church has been warned she is facing a jail sentence.

Janet Farquhar, 70, paid the massive amount of church funds into her own bank account over an eight-year period while in her trusted position.

The pensioner took £72,155.34 from Chalmers Memorial Church in Port Seton between January 2008 and July 2016.

She banked more than £12,000 of church collection cash and also attempted to cover her tracks by forging bank statements during the Church of Scotland investigation.

Farquhar pleaded guilty to the embezzlement charge at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today (Thursday) where a sheriff said the offence was “a gross breach of trust” and that the OAP runs a “substantial risk of a custodial sentence”.

The court heard that Farquhar was appointed treasurer of the church in March 1999 and began pilfering thousands of pounds of church funds in 2008.

She paid cheques totalling £59,752.34 into her own Royal Bank of Scotland account and took the remaining £12,403 from church collections made by parishioners during her decade of dishonesty.

Farquhar was unable to take her place in the dock due to her disabilities and admitted her guilt from the public gallery.

Fiscal depute Rachel Aedy told the court the Church of Scotland finance committee assessed the church’s income and ministry payments in 2015 but found Chalmers Church were behind in their contributions and “a significant amount was due”.

Ms Aedy said Farquhar eventually told Church of Scotland officials that the church’s bank was looking into the anomaly after she had ignored repeated email requests for clarification into the missing funds.

The dishonest pensioner, of East Lorimer Place, Cockenzie, eventually sent forged bank statements from 2013 in an attempt to put a halt to the investigation.

Ms Aedy said: “A church elder, who also works for the Royal Bank of Scotland, was asked to assist to see where the missing money was going.

“Upon receiving the bank statements the elder noticed issues regarding the bank statements which appeared to have been altered.

“She compared the bank statements against the bank’s computer records and noticed the statements provided by the accused proposing to be from 2016 were actually statements from 2013 - the year had bean altered to say 2016.”

Church officials then demanded all the financial paperwork concerning Chalmers Memorial Church from Farquhar and it became apparent she had been paying in cheques to her own bank account.

An internal church investigation was held and the OAP was told she “should resign or be removed from her position” before police were called in.

The court was told a total of 76 cheques were found to have been cashed into Farquhar’s bank account over the eight years totalling £59,752.34.

The fiscal added: “In relation to the remaining £12,403 the money the accused failed to bank was church collection money.

“The Crown understands the accused has repaid the sum of £15,000 to the Church of Scotland.”

Colm Dempsey, defending, said his client was facing “a very serious matter” and that “steps are also being taken to ensure that all sums are repaid”.

The solicitor said he would reserve his full mitigation until the sentencing diet.

Sheriff Peter Braid told Farquhar: “I will continue to your bail but you should be under no illusion that you do face a very substantial risk of a custodial sentence.

“On the next occasion arrangements will have to be made with the court staff in advance to ensure you can be placed in the dock.”

Sentence was deferred until next month for the preparation of reports.