The theft of £12,350 from the Lloyd Land Rover dealership in Kelso which employed him has landed 54-year-old Gordon Thomson in court.

Thomson occupied a position of trust at the Land Rover dealership in Scotland when he took the money between April and May 2019, prosecutors informed Jedburgh Sheriff Court.

Thomson, of East Lothian, admitted the offences.

Sheriff Peter Paterson has delayed sentencing Thomson until February 2024 to give him time to repay all the money, but warned him he will still face punishment.

In a separate case, in 2022 a former Evans Halshaw employee who diverted 73 DVLA cheques worth over £10,000 into his own bank account avoided jail in a fraud hearing at York Crown Court.

Michael Richards, an ex-employee of Pendragon's Evans Halshaw Vauxhall dealership at Clifton Moor, near York, had claimed that he had been trying to safeguard the money because the cheques were so old that they were running out of time to be paid into a bank account.

Richards was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months on condition he does 80 hours’ unpaid work.