Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

AUDITORS are probing claims an ex-worker at a closed-down club venue pocketed more than £300,000 in a booking scam.

Andrew Maitland has been accused of faking invoices and charging double the agreed fee for events.

It is claimed the 29-year-old, who was employed as a booker at The Arches in Glasgow, also told promoters to divert overpayments to a separate bank account.

The cash relates to DJs being hired for the venue, which was forced to shut earlier this year after an intervention by Police Scotland .

Administrators were called in after it emerged The Arches – which was also a theatre, arts and concert arena – owed £500,000 to creditors.

Taxpayer-funded quango Creative Scotland have taken action to claim £3.96million in grants they awarded. The Arches received £11.2million of public funding over a 20-year period .

Bogus invoices were allegedly found by another booker when a payment to a promoter’s bank account was returned. Sources close to The Arches fear the alleged scam was being operated for several years.

Auditors at accountancy firm Campbell Dallas are investigating the claims. They have vowed to pass on any evidence of fraud to police.

Maitland has denied any wrong-doing and claims he is the victim of a smear campaign.

It’s understood his family have arranged to pay cash back after contacting a lawyer at insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor.

A source said: “The allegation is that Maitland would tell his bosses one fee and the agent another. So, when the payments went to the agent’s account, they’d get in touch and say they’d been overpaid.”

Maitland, who is originally from Stornoway, lives in Glasgow’s Hillhead. He is listed at Companies House as a director of two events firms in the city – AGSF and AMAD.

He said: “I haven’t been involved in a scam. It’s all untrue and a bit of a shock. It’s people who I’ve fallen out with coming to you with rumours. I haven’t heard from Campbell Dallas, other than to get my redundancy in June.”

The Arches – a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity – went bust in June after the Glasgow’s licensing board put an end to their nightclub by forcing the venue to close at midnight. Police had lodged concerns about drug and alcohol incidents at the venue.