A Post Office manager who embezzled more than £110,000 from her employer, a local charity and an elderly woman has been ordered to pay £100,000 of it back.

Carol Oswald, 53, admitted the five-year period of deception at Perth Sheriff Court in April last year.

The Crown launched a Proceeds of Crime action against her and on Wednesday she was told to pay the compensation.

It represents the entirety of her current assets and will be divided up between her victims or their nearest relatives.

Lindsey Miller, procurator fiscal for Organised Crime and Counter-Terrorism, said: "Carol Oswald abused the trust of her friends and colleagues, undermining their businesses and charitable endeavours, purely in order to line her own pockets.

"The age and vulnerability of some of her victims and even the fact that some of them had since sadly died did not prevent Oswald from being brought to justice.

"Prosecutors no longer look solely at securing a conviction. Wherever an accused has profited from breaking the law we do all we can to ensure they repay that money, and today’s order means that Oswald’s entire estate will be divided up between her victims or their nearest relatives."

Oswald was employed as manager of Letham Post Office in Perth and was responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.

In 2011, the sub-postmaster died and his wife, then aged 79 but now also deceased, took up the role.

The following year, concerns were raised about late payment and delayed acceptance of cash transfers, and the Post Office security department instructed an audit of the business.

It revealed the accused had embezzled £100,000 and taken numerous steps to mask her trail and disguise the shortfall, including creating fictitious cash transfers and falsifying documentation.

The owner of the Post Office had also entrusted the accused to assist her with her banking affairs.

When the charges in relation to the Post Office came to light, she checked her bank account and discovered unauthorised transactions totalling £8060 had been made into an account associated with Oswald.

The accused was also found to have embezzled £2367 from the Letham Climate Challenge charity.

She initially joined the group as a volunteer and in 2011 became a trustee, responsible for setting up a bank account for the charity and managing finances and payments.

The other members and trustees repeatedly asked to see bank statements but the accused failed to provide them and made excuses as to why she had not brought them to group meetings.

After the circumstances at the Post Office came to light, the other trustees repeatedly attempted to contact the accused seeking information and documentation in relation to the accounts but received no response.

On contacting banks and the HMRC to obtain details of the accounts, they were informed that no such accounts existed.

On May 19, 2015, Oswald was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.