Pain of embezzlement
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Wednesday, January 2, 2008
By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lpark@standard.net
Sunset business still trying to recover from $40,000 incident
SUNSET -- A small-business owner has learned a hard lesson and wonders how long it will take to get her financial record back on track.
"This is such a heartache to me," said Vicki DuBose, co-owner of Charlie's Service Inc. in Sunset. Earlier this year, she said, she learned an employee she's known personally for many years stole money from her.
Mariah Andrea Jamison, 29, of Hooper, has been charged in 2nd District Court in Farmington with second-degree felony communication fraud.
Deputy Davis County Attorney Steve Major said the charge stems from an investigation which showed Jamison signed the owner's name on checks. She then cashed those checks into her personal accounts, used credit cards for personal use and kept cash customers brought in to pay for job orders, he said.
DuBose said Jamison took about $40,000 from her business during the six months she worked for her. She hired Jamison in October because she knew she needed a job. What she didn't know was why.
Jamison was fired from her job at a Harrisville restaurant after the owner caught her stealing money from him, said Harrisville Police Chief Max Johnson.
Jamison was cited for a misdemeanor in Harrisville City Court and agreed to a plea in abeyance.
"We understand she's re-offended and now our city attorney is moving to revoke the plea in abeyance and have it stand as a conviction," Johnson said.
Jamison could now face jail time for that conviction, Johnson said.
DuBose said she didn't do a background check or call references before she hired Jamison because she has known the woman since she was 4 or 5 years old. DuBose said she believed she could trust Jamison to do her books and help her so she could focus on other parts of her job. Now her trust for people is gone.
"No one does the books now but me," DuBose said.
If she's gone for a day, she double checks the books when she returns to work.
The Davis County Sheriff's Office investigated the case after DuBose reported it to Sunset police in April, said Sunset Chief Ken Eborn. Jamison's husband is an officer with Sunset, but is not involved in the charges.
"He's an excellent officer and this has not affected his job in any way," Eborn said.
DuBose said Jamison's husband knew nothing about the embezzlement.
"It hurt me to the core," DuBose said. "I didn't know what to do."
DuBose said she had a difficult time deciding whether to file charges against Jamison because she has known her family for years.
"She and my son were best friends," DuBose said.
She said she became suspicious in February when she got calls from vendors asking her to pay her bills.
DuBose said she watched her employees closer and talked to other employees.
She said she confronted Jamison on April 3 about the embezzlement and that is when she terminated her.
Charges were finally filed against Jamison in December.
Jamison has a court date set for today for an initial appearance hearing.
Major said it takes time to investigate this type of white collar crime because "you have to establish a money trail. You need to know where the money went and where it came from."
Investigators have to contact every customer and verify if they paid the bill, how they paid the bill and where the money went from there, Major said.
"This takes a whole bunch of time," he said.
It also takes time to re-establish credit with vendors, DuBose said.
"We're still struggling to pull ourselves out," DuBose said. "Financially we're in a bind, but many of our creditors are understanding and are giving us a few months to get caught up on past bills."
Major said this type of crime is happening too often. Generally it's the small-business owner who is the victim, not the big businesses. Small businesses will have the same person collect the money, write checks and reconcile books.
The embezzlement usually doesn't come to light until the suspect goes on vacation, Major said. Then someone else does the books and discovers discrepancies.
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