Virginia Woman Sentenced For Embezzling $129K

From the News Leader on 12/15/2014:

A former administrative assistant at a Fishersville doctor's office will spend five years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to stealing more than $129,000 during a three-year period.

Trudie L. Boggs, 46, was convicted on 47 counts of embezzlement in Augusta County Circuit Court.
Gambling, she said, was to blame.

Boggs is a former employee at Augusta Health Neurological Associates. In the summer of 2011, Boggs took business checks from the doctor's office and began writing checks to herself. The thefts continued unabated for three years, according to A. Lee Ervin, the Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney.

"There were 47 instances of this," Ervin said.

Ervin said Boggs would get copies of the checks from the bank and used correction fluid to hide her name. She would then write the name of a vendor on the checks in an attempt to hide the thefts "so the balance would add up."

Ervin said the scheme unraveled when a doctor checking a payment came across one of the altered checks. An audit was ordered and the discrepancies were soon uncovered.

Given a chance to address the court on Monday, Boggs apologized to the "practice and the doctors."
Boggs said she didn't want to make excuses for the thefts, but admitted, "I had a gambling addiction."
In a plea agreement with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, she was sentenced to 40 years in prison with 35 years suspended. She also was placed on 35 years of probation and was ordered to pay a total of $129,099 in restitution.

Boggs will remain free through the holidays, but was ordered to report to Middle River Regional Jail on Jan. 2 to await transfer to the Virginia Department of Corrections.