Bank teller skimmed $88,000 from Georgia store’s account, feds say. Now she must pay

A former bank teller will serve two months in prison after she was accused of skimming nearly $90,000 from a Georgia convenience store’s deposits, federal officials said.

She will then serve two months in home confinement and pay more than $97,000 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Georgia announced Dec. 20.

McClatchy News could not immediately reach the woman’s attorney on Dec. 21.

The Metter woman pleaded guilty in August to a bank fraud charge in a scheme to “embezzle, abstract and steal cash deposits” from July 2019 to February 2021, federal officials said.

While working at Synovus Bank, the woman personally handled the account of a convenience store, McClatchy News reported.

She is accused of skimming money from the store’s deposits to “enrich herself” and concealing the theft with fake deposit slips.

The convenience store caught on to what she’d been doing when an auditor noticed the store wasn’t receiving as much cash in its account as it deposited, officials said.

A bank fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. However, as part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors recommended the low end of the advised sentencing term range.

She also agreed not to work at a financial institution in the future.

The former teller “violated the trust of her employer and its customer, and is being held accountable for her theft,” U.S. Attorney Steinberg said in the release. “This sentence offers assurance that those who commit fraud will be brought to justice.”

She is expected to report to prison Feb. 20, records show.

Metter, Georgia, is about 65 miles northwest of Savannah.

This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Bank teller skimmed $88,000 from Georgia store’s account, feds say. Now she must pay."