A former employee of a local car dealership was arrested on felony warrants Friday afternoon for allegedly embezzling over $17,000 from the dealership last year.
Janet Christine Stair, 67, who lists a Thornton Street address, was taken into custody shortly after 1 p.m. and charged with theft of property over $25,000, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and computer fraud, punishable by up to six years.
Stair, who lists no prior felony history, was later released on $7,500 bond and is set to appear April 9 in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Sept. 13, 2018, Paul Riser, with Riser Dodge Chrysler, 4722 Central Ave., reported an employee, identified as Stair, was taking cash customers paid toward their services work on their tickets.
Stair would then allegedly change the tickets from "cash" to "warranty," and modify the service performed on the ticket so Chrysler/Dodge Manufacture would cover it under warranty and pay the dealership for the fabricated service.
She would reportedly also change the vehicle identification number, vehicle year and description on the tickets so the company would pay for the fabricated warranty work so the vehicle would still be under the warranty programs.
Between February 2018 and Sept. 6, 2018, Stair allegedly took $17,090.72 in cash from the dealership and in turn produced fabricated warranty tickets so that Chrysler/Dodge paid $11,838.79 to the dealership.
Riser provided documentation of the customer tickets showing where they paid cash and then the ticket was modified by Stair using her personal employee login to the warranty ticket. The modified ticket was then submitted to Chrysler/Dodge by Stair in "an attempt to gain back some, but not all the money she took from the company."
The affidavit alleges she took $17,090.72 from the dealership and made $11,838.79 in fraudulent claims to the company.A warrant for her arrest on the two felony counts was issued on Dec. 19, 2018.
Local on 04/02/2019