Accountant in the dock

James Haugh, 45, managing director of James Haugh, Castle Douglas Limited, said that at the time the business was going through a demerger process and she had said she could help and would be a lot cheaper than another firm.
In the dock at Dumfries Sheriff Court today, Wanda Campbell, 42, of Luce Cottage, Auchenmalg, Newton Stewart, pleaded not guilty to inducing James Haugh and James Thomson Haugh to pay her £110,000 in sums of £50,000, £30,000, and £30,000 between August 2012 and the following January, which she appropriated to her own use.
The charge alleges that between March 2012 and October 2013, while acting with another or others and pretending to James Haugh, Jacqueline Haugh and James Thomson Haugh that the business to which they were officers and shareholders required for legitimate business purposes to open a bank account
under her control trading as Luce Bay Consulting – the truth being that there was no legitimate business reason to open such an account.
The court heard from the garage boss that he had been told that Campbell was formerly with HMRC and that he and his wife initially met her at her home and he had eventually taken her advice in “good faith”.
The case is being heard before a jury of ten women and five men and is expected to last two weeks.