A DRUMCHAPEL man who swiped more than £115,000 in an NHS scam to buy his terminally ill mum a house was spared jail over the scheme last week.

Scott Prior was instead tagged and given a curfew for six months and ordered to pay back the money in full.

The 30-year-old forged invoices and then processed refunds that looked like they were paid to different NHS trusts.

But the money was actually sent to bank accounts belonging to him and his mum, Catherine Prior, who had cancer and has since passed away.

He used the money to buy a three-bedroom home in Wyvis Avenue, Knightswood, and furnish the property - but had to sell it to pay back the money.

Prior claimed he embezzled the six-figure sum because he wanted to repay his mother for everything she had done for him - and bought her the house to make her more comfortable as she succumbed to cancer.

He earlier pleaded guilty to forming a fraudulent scheme and defrauding Thermo Fisher Scientific while working as an accounts assistant at their office in Fountain Crescent, Inchinnan Business Park, Paisley, between April 2013 and September 2014.

At the previous hearing, defence solicitor Gordon Ritchie said Prior owed everything to his mother.

Mr Ritchie said: “He was trying to make his mum’s life a little bit more enjoyable.

“She passed away without knowing the source of the funds.”

The house was sold, leaving Prior with a banker’s draft for £96,000 he could pay as compensation to Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew placed him on a two-year community payback order which will see him supervised by social workers, do 290 hours’ unpaid work and pay back the full £115,844.42 he took within 18 months.

Prior was also fitted with an electronic tag and has to stay home between 8pm and 7am for six months.