A Pendragon accounts assistant whose £250,000 fraud was discovered while she was on maternity leave has been jailed.

Glasgow Sheriff Court sentenced Andrea Gibson to 16 months’ imprisonment for defrauding the Evans Halshaw Ford dealership she worked for out of £248,652 over the course of three years.

She had admitted the crimes at an earlier hearing, during which the court was told her fraud was discovered by the Glasgow dealership’s financial controller after Gibson went on maternity leave in January 2018.

Gibson, from Dalmarnock in Glasgow, had forged and falsified documents and manipulated the accounts of the company in an attempt to cover her activities and avoid detection, according to prosecutor Debbie Carroll at the earlier hearing.

The crimes were committed to pay gambling debts, said the prosecution.