Worker ‘addicted to stealing’ stole $600,000 from school, feds say. She gets prison
A woman will serve time in federal prison after prosecutors said she stole more than $600,000 from an alternative school in Florida, where she used to work.
While the head of payroll at Silver River Mentoring and Instruction in Marion County, she sent herself 137 unauthorized paychecks, according to prosecutors.
When there was a financial review of the school’s funds in April 2023, the woman privately told the school’s executive director: “I’ve been paying myself extra money,” court documents say.
She also said “she had become addicted to stealing,” according to her plea agreement.
The woman, 41, of Summerfield, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a Sept. 3 news release.
She was ordered to pay $766,553.54 in restitution to Silver River Mentoring and Instruction, which is attended by middle and high school students, and must forfeit $616,793.43 — the amount she received after normal paycheck deductions, according to prosecutors.
Her defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Sept. 4.
In December, the woman pleaded guilty to eight counts of wire fraud, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News reported.
Prosecutors said she was able to issue herself checks from the school by entering “false information” into the school’s accounting system and then received the money in her bank account from wire transfers.
When the woman told the school executive she had been stealing, she didn’t mention what she spent the money on, her plea agreement says.
However, she told him all the money was gone, according to prosecutors.
Her “actions cost the school $766,553.54 — a figure representing the fraudulent pay she received ($616,793.43) plus the associated benefits and taxes,” prosecutors said.
Summerfield is about a 60-mile drive northwest from Orlando.
This story was originally published September 4, 2024 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Worker ‘addicted to stealing’ stole $600,000 from school, feds say. She gets prison."
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