Office manager stole £900,000 from bosses to live 'life of a millionaire' - including £40,000 Halloween party

An office manager stole more than £900,000 from her bosses to fund an extravagant luxury lifestyle – including a £40,000 Halloween party in a castle, luxury cars, holidays to the Caribbean and days at the races.

Emma Hunt, 37, conned an Edinburgh property firm out of the cash by diverting rent payments made by tenants to her own accounts for three years.

The cash meant she could live like a millionaire despite having a salary of £1800 per month, a court heard.

Hunt, who now lives in London, was convicted of embezzling £899,164.77 between 2016 and 2019, as well as being convicted of pretending to 11 renters that they had to pay deposits for flats when no sums were due, meaning she obtained £7,295 by fraud.

The 37-year-old was also found guilty of transferring money she had taken to her brother’s account – including buying a bulldozer, and purchasing goods, services, hospitality, holidays and cars.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Hunt used the money she had taken to go on a spending spree on luxury holidays, high-end hotels and pricey cars, including throwing a costumed Halloween party at a 16th century castle in East Lothian costing almost £40,000 - including a marquee that cost more than £12,000 alone.

She used her ill-gotten gains to treat friends and family to VIP days out at Six Nations rugby matches, Musselburgh Racecourse, and the Scottish Open golf championship, as well as taking her mum to a five-star all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean and enjoying a weekend trip to Dublin costing £6,590.

Read more: Boy charged over serious assault in Dublin

But Hunt's scheme came crashing down after a tenant queried the payments and her bosses finally uncovered her crimes.

Hunt initially denied the offences, claiming that a boss at the property firm she worked for, who is now deceased, allowed her to spend the cash to buy her silence over allegations she made that he was putting up prostitutes in flats. She also claimed she was raking in huge sums from running her own cleaning business.

But the jury rejected her claims and found her guilty of stealing more than £900,000.

The court was told that Hunt’s crimes started shortly after she started working as an office manager at McLean Properties in 2016.

It was alleged that she spent £39,244 on a Halloween bash in 2018 for around 80 people at 16th century Fenton Tower, near North Berwick.

In 2016, she booked a birthday party for herself and 19 others at Musselburgh Racecourse in East Lothian for £3000, the court heard, and also paid for Ladies Day hospitality at the same racecourse for 20 people in 2017 and 2018, paying £6,360 and £6,600 respectively.

In 2018 she bankrolled hospitality packages for 12 friends at the Scottish Open, costing £300 per person, the court heard, while a further £7,180 was spent at Murrayfield Stadium for hospitality packages for 10 people at the ­Scotland v England Six Nations clash.

The ­prosecution said Hunt spent at least £23,219 on ­accommodation around Edinburgh at top class hotels, such as the swanky Principal and the five star Caledonian, between 2016 and 2019.

Hunt also splashed cash on holidays including a Caribbean trip with her mum between 31 December 2018 and 10 January, 2019, costing £7,944, as well as spending £1,674 on flights for a weekend trip to Dublin in 2018.

In 2016 Hunt paid £19,500 for a new Audi S1 Quattro, trading it in for a BMW M2 which cost her an extra £35,000. She also spent £6730.05 at Louis Vuitton, the court heard, along with sending £91,596 in 45 separate ­transactions to her brother’s farming contracting business.

The court heard that McLean Properties feared money might be missing for several months before Hunt was caught, but the jury was told her role in controlling financial paperwork allowed her to cover her tracks.

Jurors were told that Hunt gave her bank account details to tenants rather than the company’s for rent payments, and also took deposits from student tenants who weren’t usually charged the fee.

Hunt would also amend invoices from outside firms carrying out services including maintenance, and came up with a ruse that involved her arranging new payments for old invoices which were already settled then having the sums repaid into her own account.

Her downfall came when a tenant contacted McLean Properties to say they had been asked to change the account they made rent payments to, prompting an investigation that found money had been paid into an account controlled by Hunt.

She was sacked and the police called in. Following the guilty verdicts she is now due to be sentenced.