Gambling mum who embezzled £30k from gymnastics club to fund habit avoids jail

A treasurer who brought a gymnastics club to the brink of collapse by stealing more than £30,000 to fund her gambling habit has walked free from court.

Mhairi Ovenstone, 48, spent years stealing money from Pegasus Gymnastics to play online casino games – and to pay her own daughter’s club fees.

Ovenstone was allowed to walk free from Dundee Sheriff Court after being ordered to pay £30,176.57 compensation back to the club. She was ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work and placed under supervision for 18 months.

The court was told that the club funds became so depleted that they were struggling to pay for hall facilities and sought emergency loans.

Ovenstone, from Wormit in Fife, had originally been charged with embezzling over £40,000 from the club over a decade. The Crown accepted her guilty plea to embezzling £30,176.57 between 1 January 2017 and 11 February 2020.

The court was told that Ovenstone was a volunteer committee member and treasurer of the 150-member club in Newport-On-Tay from 2010 until 2020.

Ovenstone, who has worked as a financial controller for law firms, was passing off payments for “leotards” among others she was moving to her own bank account.

She was making regular payments to her own bank account and moving virtually all of each sum onwards later the same day to pay online gaming and casino companies.

Fiscal depute Lynn Mannion told the court: “Pegasus Gymnastics Club is a non-profit charitable organisation which operates through grants and fundraising.

“The club has approximately 150 members and the accused was club treasurer and a committee member from 2010 until 2020. These were voluntary roles.

“She was responsible for dealing with invoices, paying bills, keeping records of financial transactions, and making sure funds were spent properly.

“She was responsible for monitoring budgets throughout the years and was signatory for the club bank account which was in the name of the accused and linked to her home address.

“She was solely responsible for the club’s finances. From 1 January 2017 she began doing transactions to her own personal bank account. These were illegitimate and not related to any club invoice.”

The court heard that Ovenstone made five transfers in a 24-hour period in January 2017 to steal £1,300 from the club. She spent £1,990 on gambling sites over the same period.

Ovenstone dipped into club accounts more than 20 times during 2017 and hid the transactions as “commission, A Star Leotards, Gala purchases and Volunteers Xmas.”

She embezzled over £9,000 in 2017, more than £13,000 the following year and £7,500 between 1 January and 11 February 2020.

Ms Mannion said: “Hall fees were not paid and that was discussed with the accused. The committee sent messages to the accused about £4,000 in unpaid let fees.”

It was pointed out that the club “needed grant funding fast” or a loan but Ovenstone replied that any loan should be in the club’s name as she had “a s*** credit rating.”

Ovenstone blamed other parents for not paying their fees, while at the same time she was funding her daughter’s gymnastics fees with the club’s own money.

“The club was struggling as there was no funding for extra facilities and coach wages had not been paid on time,” the prosecutor told the court.

When the committee continued to push Ovenstone for an explanation she ignored them and stopped attending meetings at the club.

A full financial investigation was carried out by the club and a number of “suspicious” financial transactions became evident in the bank account.

“Upon review there were numerous suspicious transactions,” Ms Mannion said. “The club was in a poorer financial position than it should have been.”

By June 2020, Ovenstone had resigned from the club, citing ill-health and stating that she had suffered a breakdown. Police were called in.

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