TWO ex-police officers who helped themselves to £60,000 from an elderly woman’s bank account have had their sentencing delayed again to allow an expert to review their finances.

Andrew Rough, a former firearms officer and detective sergeant, and his wife Jean, an-ex police constable, drained the savings of his mother over a period of almost five years when she was aged 80 to 84.

The Alloa couple could have been facing a jail term when they appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday, but officials were told that information called for on their financial means had not been presented “in an acceptable form”.

Sheriff William Gilchrist, who already deferred sentence on the couple twice for background information, said details about capacity to pay compensation “was required” in an embezzlement case.

Advocate Lewis Kennedy, for Andrew Rough, said that over the last month the Roughs had approached their local Citizens Advice Bureau and completed “a pro-forma financial profile”.

Mr Kennedy said: “This has just been disclosed to the defence and unfortunately as a financial statement it has certain limitations – it’s not quite fit for purpose.

“My motion is for a further continuation for a more focused accountants’ report to be prepared which might more specifically explore the options for a payment plan.”

Sheriff Gilchrist agreed to delay sentencing for a further nine days, and ordered the couple to reappear in court on October 19.

He said: “I did ask for a financial statement. It is relevant to the issue of compensation.”

After a ten-day trial in August, a jury of nine women and six men took less than two hours to find the Roughs, both 58, guilty of embezzlement.

The court heard they spent Gladys’s 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 for Andrew, and splashed out up to £700 a month on trolley-loads of groceries.

Police were called in after one of the complainer’s accounts was drained down to the last 37p, causing a payment to her phone company to bounce, her line to be disconnected, and her panic alarm to stop working.

The trial heard that the Roughs had wanted to get “utter control” over the complainer, now 86, and became angry when officials started to probe their dealings.

Prosecutor Sarah Lumsden said the couple had used the old lady “like a cash machine”.