Margaret Burnett

Introduction

Margaret Burnett is a 69-year-old woman from Granton, Edinburgh, who was removed from the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) register of social care workers after being convicted of embezzling £29,900 from five vulnerable residents of a Leonard Cheshire supported accommodation home in Edinburgh. She had worked for the disability charity for 13 years, rising to team leader, and illegally used residents’ bank cards to take the money. Burnett pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzlement and was sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in September 2025. In February 2026, the SSSC imposed a removal order striking her from the register.

Background Information

Burnett was employed by Leonard Cheshire — a charity that provides specialist support to disabled people, including those with extremely complex care needs — for 13 years, working her way up to the post of team leader at a supported accommodation facility in Edinburgh. Prosecutors said her position gave her access to the home’s safe and a locked cabinet containing residents’ banking cards, with all transactions officially logged in a cash book.

She had been registered with the SSSC since May 2013. Of the five residents from whom she stole, one — who has since died — had cerebral palsy, while another suffered from multiple sclerosis.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. Margaret Burnett’s conviction on a charge of embezzlement, to which she pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, is a matter of court record; the account below rests on that conviction and the regulator’s response to it.

Between January 2014 and August 2016, Burnett illegally used the bank cards of five residents to make withdrawals totalling £29,900. The court heard she used the bank card of one victim while he was in hospital and “physically unable to withdraw the cash”. The Deadline News report said the “callous” pensioner used the stolen cash to fund her “out of control online gambling addiction”.

The offending came to light in September 2016, when the Royal Bank of Scotland contacted the charity after identifying ATM withdrawals totalling several hundred pounds from one resident’s account. Charity officials then discovered several withdrawals of between £100 and £300 that had not been recorded in the logbooks or the residents’ diaries. The home’s management alerted police, and a subsequent investigation found that the bank accounts of five vulnerable service users had been accessed by Burnett. She was suspended and then dismissed before being arrested in November 2019.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Sentencing Burnett, Sheriff Charles Walls told her she had carried out “a gross breach of trust” and that the offences had “required significant planning and execution”. He added: “The adults who you were responsible for, and their families, were entitled to assume you would support and care for these individuals.” He said she had abused her position of trust “in a callous and calculated way by withdrawing money from residents’ bank accounts and manipulating residents’ funds”.

Burnett was handed a 12-month supervision order and made subject of a restriction of liberty order, reportedly requiring her to stay at home between 7pm and 7am for six months. She was also ordered to pay the four victims of her offending who are still alive £3,000 each in compensation within 28 days. Neil Almond, interim procurator fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said: “Margaret Burnett committed an egregious betrayal of trust. These residents depended on her to play a part in their financial arrangements. But she flagrantly abused her position to use their money for her own benefit.”

A Leonard Cheshire spokesperson said Burnett had been “suspended and subsequently dismissed by the charity as soon as concerns were raised”, that all relevant authorities and regulators — including the police — were informed immediately, and that “All service users who lost money have had this reimbursed by the charity”. The charity said Scotland management at the time strengthened financial controls at individual services with support from an external auditor, and that its newer systems were “designed to identify suspicious activity far sooner”.

In a notice of decision published in February 2026, the SSSC said that given the seriousness of Burnett’s conviction, “if similar behaviour were to be repeated it would place vulnerable people at a serious risk of harm”, and that “The behaviour leading to your conviction is indicative of an underlying values or attitudinal issue”. The regulator said her behaviour “amounted to financial abuse of vulnerable people” and a breach of the trust placed in the five victims, her employer and the public. It ruled out a warning, which “would give no protection to people who use services or the public”, and a conditions order, because “there are no conditions which could be placed on you which would address why your fitness to practise is impaired”. A suspension order was also rejected, the SSSC saying her conviction was “fundamentally incompatible with continuing registration” and that there was no evidence it would allow her to remedy the cause of the impairment. “The SSSC considers a removal order is the most appropriate sanction as it’s both necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession,” it said. The regulator added that Burnett had provided no insight, regret or remorse about her behaviour.

Current Status

Burnett is struck off the SSSC register. A Leonard Cheshire spokesperson said the charity noted and supported the SSSC’s decision. She remains subject to the court’s order to pay £3,000 in compensation to each of the four surviving victims. The SSSC judgement noted that “The actual behaviour occurred a number of years ago however you were only convicted in 2025”. No appeal against the removal order has been reported.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The removal order ended Burnett’s 13-year career with Leonard Cheshire and her place on the SSSC register, which she had held since May 2013. The regulator said her conviction “gives rise to concerns about your values”, which “cannot be managed by way of a condition given the abuse of trust”, and that “Your conviction and the behaviour leading to your conviction is incompatible with continued registration in a trusted and caring profession”. The dual outcome — a criminal conviction and removal by her regulator — excludes her from the sector and from any role requiring SSSC registration.