An accountant for the charity that runs the Edinburgh Festival Fringe embezzled more than £200,000 from her employers.

Lynn Taylor, 56, pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday to swindling £220,331 from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society between 2008 and 2015.

Fiscal deputy Aidan Higgins said the scheme was uncovered in 2015 when the charity switched to a new pension system.

It was discovered employer contribution pension payments had been going directly into Taylor's bank account.

At a disciplinary hearing, Mr Higgins said Taylor was unable to explain how this had happened but voiced concern that she might have overpaid herself.

She was unable to give an exact figure and said she had been stressed.

Taylor told her colleagues: "I tried it once and got away with it and you get a little greedy."

When interviewed by the police, Taylor told them: "I did it bottom line, no two ways about it, completely on my own without any involvement of any other person within or outwith the organisation.

"I am not going to deny something I did. It has totally destroyed my life and I am never going to work again."

She told the police she really did not know how much she had taken.

Sheriff Frank Crowe was told she had repaid all the money taken, as well as a further £40,000 for the cost of the investigation.

Defence agent John Scullion said his client was at a loss to explain her behaviour over the years.

He said she had been interested in horses and show-jumping and had overspent significantly.

She had psychological problems and had now sold the house she jointly owned with her husband, he said.

Sheriff Crowe deferred sentence until next month for a psychologist's report.

He told Taylor, who has been living in Portugal: "You have admitted a very serious breach of trust involving a six-figure sum, used for your own benefit and pleasure and taking money from a charity is something the court takes very seriously."