Woman charged with embezzling $16,000 from company
By Jeff Morganteen, Staff Writer
Published: 10:12 p.m., Wednesday, March 10, 2010
STAMFORD -- A Bridgeport woman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly embezzling money while working at a Research Drive business, police said. She is accused of stealing more than $16,000 by pocketing cash invoices and replacing the missing funds with fraudulent charges to the account of an unknowing customer.
The woman, Patricia Jacques, 28, of 198 French St., Bridgeport, was charged with first-degree larceny and 17 counts of illegal use of a credit card after Stamford police investigators arrested her at home Wednesday morning, said police Sgt. Peter diSpagna, head of the property crimes unit. While booking Jacques, police discovered that authorities in New York City had a warrant out for her arrest.
Stamford police said Jacques allegedly made unauthorized transactions totaling $16,225 from April to June of last year while working at a Research Drive business, which police did not name. She worked as an administrative assistant in charge of processing payments at the business.
Police began looking into Jacques when they received a complaint last summer from the company. A customer had reported several unauthorized charges on his account that totaled to just under $14,000.
The Research Drive company interviewed Jacques and became suspicious of her since she was the only employee with access to the customer's account information. Police investigated the alleged embezzlement and found that Jacques stole about $2,000 more than the customer initially thought, diSpagna said.
An investigation by Stamford police Officers George Whalen and John Russell revealed Jacques allegedly pocketed several cash invoices from other customers, and instead of putting the cash into a register, she charged the stolen money to a single customer who supplied her company with frequent business, police said.
She was held in lieu of a $100,000 bond and is due in court March 24.
Her extradition to New York City is pending, diSpagna said. There she faces additional larceny charges in a 2007 warrant.
Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or 203-964-2215.
