TWO ex-police officers who drained an elderly woman’s bank account could be spared a jail sentence after the victim spoke out on their behalf.

Andrew Rough, a former firearms officer and detective sergeant, and his wife Jean, an-ex police constable, helped themselves £60,000 from the savings of Andrew’s mother Gladys.

The embezzlement stretched over a period of five years, when she was aged between 80 and 84.

They spent her money on paying the mortgage of an up-market, new-build home, loading up with hunting, shooting and fishing supplies, part-payments on a summer house for their back garden and laser eye surgery.

They also lashed out up to £700 a month on groceries.

After a ten-day trial last month, a jury of nine women and six men took less than two hours to find the Roughs, of Alloa, guilty.

Jurors heard that police were called in after one of Gladys’s account was drained down to the last 37 pence, causing a payment to her phone company to bounce, her line to be disconnected, and her panic alarm to stop working.

But when the Roughs, both 58, appeared for sentencing in Stirling last Wednesday, Sheriff William Gilchrist was told that Gladys, now 86, had specifically told prosecutors that she did not want them jailed.

The case was further adjourned for Gladys’ views to be formally obtained, and for a report on the Roughs’ financial circumstances.

Sheriff Gilchrist said: “At the present I take the view that I need more information.

“Compensation is something I’m bound to consider, and I don’t think I have sufficient information at the moment.

"I also need a victim impact statement.”

He also called for supplementary social enquiry report on Jean Rough, saying he lacked full information on her suitability to carry out unpaid work – which may be imposed as an alternative to a jail sentence.

He ordered them to reappear for sentence on October 10, and continued their bail.

Andrew Rough shot for Scotland and the British Police team and won a bravery award for saving someone from a knife attack. He was part of the security team that guarded the home of the late Lord George Younger, Margaret Thatcher’s defence secretary.

He also served as a detective sergeant with Central Scotland Police, based in Falkirk.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard last month that the Roughs had wanted to get “utter control” over Gladys, and became angry when officials started to probe their dealings.

Gladys said she was “shocked and stunned” to find large sums had gone out of her account, and prosecutor Sarah Lumsden said the couple had used the old lady “like a cash machine”.