Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mississippi Woman Sentenced In Junior College Embezzlement Scheme

Tracy Laird, 40, of Ellisville, Mississippi, plead guilty and was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison, with an additional five years of post-release supervision for embezzling more than $90,000 from Jones County Junior College where she had been employed in the business office. Laird was also ordered to pay required to pay $110,429.46 in restitution. According to Jones County Assistant District Attorney Dennis Bisnett, Laird would "write bad checks to the business office, cash the checks and shred documents. She would hide it from the accounting system to not be detected, and keeping the money for herself.” The scheme reportedly lasted for about a year and a half, from July 2007 to February 2009. Laird was indicted last September. Bisnett is further quoted as saying, “People get in an economic bind and decide they need to turn to embezzlement. Bad things happen to good people. At first, they’re just taking a little, then it gets out of hand and they can’t pay it back. They always had the intention to pay it back to start with.”

Read the story here and here.

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