Embezzlements can be avoided, say police
Photo 
Deborah Wright
JANESVILLE — If Faith Lutheran Church had taken simple steps, it might have avoided the theft of about $53,000, a police detective said.
Deborah L. Wright, 38, of 3204 Rose Court, Beloit, is accused of embezzling the money from the church's Faith Little Friends Day Care, according to the criminal complaint.
The former day care director stood mute in Rock County Court on Tuesday to two felony charges of theft of more than $10,000 from a business and one felony charge of theft of $2,500 to $5,000 from a business.
The court entered a not guilty plea for Wright.
Embezzlement cases such as Wright's are common but preventable, said Janesville police detective Chris Buescher, who investigates financial crimes.
In the case of Faith Lutheran Church, 2116 Mineral Point Ave., Wright is suspected of using credit cards, debit cards, cashier's checks and cash withdrawals to steal money from January 2007 through December 2008, Buescher said.
She paid her mortgage and vacation-club payments with church dollars, he said.
She also rented cars or hotel rooms while on trips to Florida and California, Buescher said.
If church officials had reviewed bank statements, they might have prevented the thefts.
"They weren't looking at the statements early on, and if they were, they certainly weren't looking at them good enough," Buescher said. "The bank records are never going to lie."
Businesses also should have someone oversee the person in charge of money, he said.
Faith Lutheran allowed Wright to have access to all the day care's accounts, Buescher said.
"Whoever is in charge of bookkeeping or payroll, there's got to be one more level of oversight," he said. "She had the authority to go to the credit union and withdraw funds at her will. That should have been monitored."
Businesses also should minimize the number of accounts they have, Buescher said. They should require two signatures for purchases over a certain amount.
Faith Lutheran had a debit card and credit card, he said, and it didn't require a second signature.
But one of the best ways to prevent embezzlements, Buescher said, is to not be too trusting.
"There are a lot of scams out there," he said.
Wright was later fired from her job. If convicted, she faces up to 23 1/2 years in prison for the felony charges. She remains free on $1,500 cash bond.
Although a handful of embezzlement cases are reported each year, more likely never get reported, Buescher said.
"I think a lot of places don't report them because they're embarrassed," he said.
Apr 2, 2009 at 9:28 p.m.
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janesvillean-my mother told me if every child behaved like me their wouldn't be any use for
discipline..---------------------------------
And my Wife said i am the perfect Husband yup sure did...
Apr 2, 2009 at 11:17 a.m.
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Callit...She must be a "spring" and not a "fall".
You'd think that the County would make certain that you were put into a more flattering wardrobe, something that would go better with your skin tone.
Apr 2, 2009 at 8:18 a.m.
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I think the orange jumpsuit is bringing out a bad color in her rouge.
Apr 1, 2009 at 10:56 p.m.
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Sysco...she charged it on the card.....HA!!!
Every business needs checks and balances. Especially with $$$ involved.
For some handling $$ is too tempting to resist and if they are not caught right away, they feel untouchable.
Apr 1, 2009 at 8:10 p.m.
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No wonder the kids were afraid of Miss Debbie.....YIKES!
Apr 1, 2009 at 6:35 p.m.
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Mikki: I don't know.. I thought she spent a little bit to much on makeup... see those cheeks. theKid3477: there's no such thing as morals if your a thief. This women apparently wasn't a great thief, but she was adequate.. getting away with it for just under a year. Some go for a lot longer & get a lot more. The two signature oversight idea is a good one, but from an experience i'm aware of that happened about 5 years ago.. Might i suggest not having two buddies working oversight over one another! It doesn't work ;)
Apr 1, 2009 at 4:01 p.m.
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She obviously didn't spend any of the money on her hair or makeup.
Apr 1, 2009 at 12:56 p.m.
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Allowing employees charge cards and signature rights on checking accounts are fine if you have proper controls. Anyone who gets away with this for two years to the tune of $53,000 has been working for an organization with a ineffective and inept control system. If it was set up correctly they would be caught within the first month.
Apr 1, 2009 at 12:37 p.m.
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Free on cash bond? Hmmm...wonder where she got the money for thaaat...
Apr 1, 2009 at 12:20 p.m.
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Of course if everyone were perfect we would have no crime, no need for cops or judges or jails. If all people that are by necessity given responsibility over money would never be tempted, we'd live in a wonderful world, wouldn't we? But if we lived in that world we'd probably not need money at all.
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Basically, businesses giving people unrestricted access to a checking account or worse a charge card are parking their car on the street and leaving it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. You can hope that people won't steal it, and maybe you can even get away with it for years, but eventually someone is going to notice and be tempted.
Apr 1, 2009 at 11:02 a.m.
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rusty -- it's not so much the "embarassment", some companies choose to not report it because they don't want their customers to think that someone is stealing the money that they pay for services. I once worked at an office where the petty cash fund disappeared. The managers chose to conduct their own internal investigation and discipline because they didn't want the "negative publicity". But then again, we weren't talking of thousands of dollars or anything.
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.
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kid: I'm with you on that one. People never cease to amaze me.
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:55 a.m.
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With all the embezzlements I have read about, not to mention the ones we never hear about, it certainly is a no brainer that these establishments need a two signature policy.
I never could understand how these crooks figure that they will NEVER get caught....
....and it is even sadder yet, most of them are women. (So am I....so no, I am not bashing females!)
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:36 a.m.
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embezzlements can be avoided, police say. yup with a little thing called morals.
Apr 1, 2009 at 9:23 a.m.
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Not good.
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