A man who obtained almost £55,000 by embezzling his employers to pay off his debts has been jailed for more than a year.

Scott Rennie previously pled guilty to embezzling £54,493 from Aegon UK from its offices in Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh, between December 3, 2014, and April 14 last year.

The 29-year-old appeared for sentence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, when he was jailed for 16 months.

Rennie, described as a prisoner at HMP Edinburgh, worked as a complaints handler for Aegon UK, giving him access to the IT system with the customers' details.

Fiscal depute Anthony Steele told the court Rennie submitted a payment request for £825 to allegedly compensate a customer and paid it into his own bank account.

This was followed by three payments of £736, £2749 and £2182, which he put into his account.

On April 14, 2015, an electronic transfer of £48,000 was made from the Aegon Pension Fund disguised as a third-party payment and Rennie left the company in May.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that in August last year, a financial adviser was reviewing the pension fund and became concerned about the £48,000 payment.

Investigations showed the money had gone into Rennie's own account and the police were contacted. When Rennie was approached, he made a full admission of what he had been doing.

Defence solicitor David Fitzpatrick told Sheriff Frank Crowe that Rennie had a considerable amount of debt and was suffering from depression.

"He knew he was going to be caught," said Mr Fitzpatrick, who added his client had fully admitted his guilt and pled guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The lawyer said action was being taken under the Proceeds of Crime Act and his client had asked the sheriff to consider a community payback order as an alternative to custody.

Sheriff Crowe told Rennie: "There is a large amount of money involved here. You were at a fairly low level in the organisation but you had a pivotal role in a position of trust. A custodial sentence in inevitable."

He added: "I think you got over your head in debt. You should have tried to arrange some form of payment to your creditors, which would have left you some money, whereas your debts took all of your income."

Detective inspector Arron Clinkscales from Police Scotland's economic crime unit said: "Rennie had betrayed the trust and confidence of his employers and their clients to secure funds for his own means.

"His sentence should serve as a warning to others that Police Scotland has specialist resources in place to investigate financial crime and will continue to work with our partners in the financial services to identify corrupt employees who prove a threat to their businesses.

"If anyone has information relating to ongoing offences of this nature then please contact us."