Victims of Aberdeen council fraudster share £300,000 payback

Michael Paterson lived a lavish lifestyle after embezzling £1m

Hundreds of victims of a jailed Aberdeen City Council fraudster have shared more than £300,000 recovered after his arrest.

Michael Paterson, 60, lived a lavish lifestyle after embezzling more than £1m from residents' accounts as a council tax team leader from 2006 to 2023.

About £520,000 has since come back to the council from Paterson's pension fund and a proceeds of crime action.

The council's audit, risk and scrutiny committee was told more than £300,000 had now been paid out to individuals after 1,800 accounts were checked.

Paterson was jailed for four years last year after admitting the crime.

He began working for the local authority in 1988 before rising to become council tax and recovery team leader.

He had unsupervised authority to issue tax refunds of up to £3,000 and he could also alter payee details which allowed him to transfer money to himself.

Paterson embezzled cash in situations where a resident had left a property but had not reclaimed for overpayment of their council tax.

His court case heard that he would spend the money on foreign holidays, eating out and luxury technology goods.

Aberdeen City Council was able to recover £417,523 from Paterson's pension fund.

Another £104,000 was returned to the council after prosecutors seized £167,000 in a proceeds of crime action

Chief finance officer Jonathan Belford said the council was the "victim of the crime" and had been endeavouring to get as much of the stolen cash back.

He said: "We've checked over 1,800 different accounts in relation to that and we have managed to repatriate over £300,000 of the money directly to individuals."

Reporting by local democracy reporter Kirstie Topp.