A fraudster who swindled farming firms out of £630,000 through a system of bounced cheques has been jailed for five years. ‌

Barry Mackland, 50, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday. Mackland, of Aberdeen, caused the businesses to lose more than half a million pounds by obtaining the cash through false pretences between March 2022 and June 2022. ‌

He pretended to other firms that the cheques he presented to them for tractors and machinery would be honoured if they were handed to a bank. However, the companies lost out when there were insufficient funds in Mackland’s account to make the payments. ‌

Mackland was still able to obtain the ill-gained goods worth tens of thousands of pounds.

His offending involved two businesses in Forfar, one in Stonehaven

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