Mills Woman Accused of Stealing Over $14K From Former Employer
The former office manager of a Casper car dealership was arrested Wednesday on allegations that she stole thousands of dollars from the business and forged the owner's signature on three checks.
Amanda Stevens, 31, is charged with four counts of felony theft and three counts of felony forgery. She did not enter a plea during her initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Thursday, as the charges are all felonies.
According to charging papers, a Casper police officer responded to Foss Toyota at roughly 8 a.m. Wednesday and spoke with the owner, Jim Foss. Foss explained that Stevens had written several unauthorized checks on the company account.
Foss had first grown suspicious when he asked Stevens to cash a check for petty cash for the business Christmas party. The requested amount was for $5,400, but Stevens wrote a check for $7,000.
Further, Foss only found $4,400 in the bank bag. He asked Stevens about the discrepancy, and she reportedly claimed that the bank may have shorted them. She returned later that day with a thousand dollars and gave it to Foss.
Foss investigated other checks recently written by Stevens and allegedly found that she had written three checks on Oct. 19, Oct. 29 and Nov. 13, respectively, and had forged the names of other managers as co-signers. Those checks were in the amounts of $3,000, $6,000 and $5,000, respectively.
Foss confronted Stevens last week and she allegedly admitted that she had written a check for $7,000 instead of the requested $5,400. She returned $1,500 to Foss in cash, but $100 was still missing as of Wednesday. Stevens was fired.
In speaking with the police officer, Foss also detailed an incident where an employee purchased some tires from the parts department for his personal vehicle. The $500 paid for the tires made its way to Stevens, but that money was never put toward the purchase.
When contacted by police, Stevens reportedly admitted to the incident involving the Christmas party check. She claimed that she kept some of the money to pay bills since her husband was unemployed.
She also admitted to writing the Nov. 13 check for $5,000. However, Stevens denied writing the other two checks. She claimed that one of them may have been a down payment she returned to a customer, but didn't have paperwork to support that claim.
Stevens was arrested and taken to jail. Her bond was set Thursday morning at $5,000 cash or surety.
A prosecuting attorney said that Stevens had no prior criminal history in Natrona County.