News / No jail for alpaca farmer who defrauded wife
A FORMER alpaca farmer who defrauded his wife of more than £11,000 last November avoided a jail sentence at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.
Colin Arnot sparked a major air, sea and land search after he disappeared from the croft he ran with his wife in North Roe, Shetland, only to turn up one week later in Lerwick.
In May the 55 year old pled guilty to forging his wife’s signature on a savings account closure form with investment company Scottish Widows and instructing them to transfer money to a new account from which he extracted £11,615.67 between 2 September and 13 December last year.
On Thursday the court heard the incident had led to the break up of the Arnot’s marriage and his disappearance, which was a reflection of his mental state at the time.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Arnot, who now lives at 20 Stucca, Hillswick, had made the decision to transfer the money during a time when the couple were having “all sorts of difficulties”, including financial ones.
He said the money had been ploughed back into the marriage and some of it was used to purchase “stuff” for his wife.
However he had since come to very much regret his decision to defraud his wife, which had led directly to their marriage coming to an end.
“It is quite clear that in the lead up to this he was extremely stressed and not coping very well with his situation,” Allan said.
“When his life unravelled he made a serious mistake and it has cost him his marriage and that is something the court can’t do anything about.”
The court heard social workers were concerned about Arnot’s mental health and his ability to cope with prison.
Sheriff Philip Mann said that the amount of money involved would warrant a jail sentence.
However he added that while he could not condone Arnot’s deceit, he was taking into consideration the fact that the money was contained within the marriage and therefore might be regarded as a “a communal pot”.
Instead of sending him to prison he placed him under supervision for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 160 hours of voluntary work for the community.
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