AN after school club manager has been struck off after she embezzled almost £4,500.
Andrena McCue took the cash from the Squids day care centre in South Queensferry, Edinburgh, which could have been forced to close as a result.
The 45-year-old was convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March this year and given a community payback order and ordered to do 140 hours of unpaid work.
Now the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) – which regulates childrens’ day care workers – has barred her from the profession.
The SSSC said McCue had never given any explanation for her actions and she had “exploited” colleagues.
The £4480 was taken between January and July 2011 from Squids, which looked after children from several primary schools in the area, the SSSC said.
The SSSC committee said last week: “She had, over an extended period of time, embezzled money from her employer.
“This was fundamentally incompatible with the role of a manager in day care services for children. It showed a high level of dishonesty for which no explanation had been given.
“[McCue’s] employer was a small voluntary organisation.
“Her actions could have caused the employer to be unable to continue in operation.
“[McCue] had failed to follow proper procedures and had exploited her employer, service users and colleagues by her actions.
“In the circumstances such dishonest behaviour fell well short of the standard of conduct expected of a person registered with the Council.”
Saying embezzlement was an “extremely serious offence”, the committee ordered her to be removed from the register of children’s day care workers.
The SSSC committee said she had a previous conviction for embezzlement, which occurred “some time ago.”
McCue, from South Queensferry, registered as a day care for children worker in 2008.
