A SON who scammed more than £115,000 to buy his terminally ill mum a house in Knightswood was spared jail once again – after agreeing to pay back the money over the next 23 years.

Finance worker Scott Prior, from Drumchapel, forged invoices and then processed refunds that looked as though they were paid to different NHS Trusts.

The 31-year-old embezzled the money while working for Thermo Fisher Scientific as an accounts assistant at their office in Fountain Crescent, Inchinnan Business Park, Paisley, between April 2013 and September 2014.

Rather than being sent to the NHS bodies, the money was actually sent to bank accounts belonging to him and his mother, who had cancer and has since passed away.

Prior used the money to buy a three-bedroom house in Knightswood and furnish the property – but had to sell it to pay back the money.

He submitted a banker’s draft for £96,000 in 2018 after the house was sold, and was placed on a community payback order (CPO) after agreeing to pay the balance of £19,844 over an 18-month period.

But he only paid back £508 in 14 months – and landed back in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court on Christmas Eve.

Defence solicitor David Nicholson told Sheriff Colin Pettigrew that Prior had completed his 290 hours’ unpaid work, as required by his CPO.

The lawyer added: “There is £19,335.98 outstanding in compensation.

“He is no longer in employment – his employment was terminated almost immediately after this matter hit the press.”

He said Prior is now at college, doing an engineering course, and works part-time in a pub – meaning he could pay £100 a month in compensation, taking him 16 years.

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Sheriff Colin Pettigrew could have caged him over the fact he had not paid the compensation, as this meant a breach of the CPO, and said he was “concerned” by how much money was still owed.

But he revoked the CPO and instead made a compensation order for the balance of £19,335.98, telling Prior he could pay it back at £70 a month, rather than the £100 a month he had offered.

The compensation order has no time limit, meaning Prior has until the balance is paid off to clear the debt.

At the rate he was told to pay, it will take him 276 months, which is over 23 years, and he will make his final payment when he is 54, in the year 2042.