Sheboygan, WI (WHBL) - 2014 was a pretty good year for the Magic Carwash on North 10th Street, and business has picked up so far this year as well. That’s why when the owner recently began the refinancing process with his bank, he was stunned to find out the numbers didn’t add up. Nightly deposits were off by more than $30,000.
But this owner kept fool - proof books, which made for accurate tracking of discrepancies, down to the penny.
A criminal complaint filed in Sheboygan County court reveals that on August, 9 2015, the owner of the carwash contacted Sheboygan police stating that he discovered a shortage of $30,900 in deposits, and that he had a pretty good idea of how the money was lifted over time.
A worker, whose job it was to handle the deposits, altered the original deposit tickets each day to reflect $200 less than the amount the business earned. The funds were taken from either cash or check deposits over many months.
But the scheme and cover-ups did not end there.
The owner claims that the same worker assisted him with reading off deposits as he entered the daily amounts into an Excel spreadsheet. He says the worker intentionally read lower amounts so as to conceal the missing funds. The owner produced the spreadsheets for investigators, as well as bank statements, and original deposit slips to corroborate his account of the discrepancies.
Police arrested 23-year-old Leticia P. Bilbrey after she admitted to taking $200 a day from the business from November 2014, until this month. The total loss to the business is $45,003.02.
Bilbrey is facing felony theft and fraud charges. She could spend more than 10 years in prison if convicted of the combined charges.