Department store employee arrested for allegedly embezzling over $2,000

Corea
Corea

An employee of a local department store was arrested Monday afternoon for allegedly embezzling over $2,000 from the business between October 2018 and January.

Joyce Elizabeth Corea, 30, who lists a Westbrook Street address, was taken into custody around 3:45 p.m. at Dillard's, 4501 Central Ave., and charged with a felony count of theft of property over $1,000, punishable by up to six years in prison.

Corea, who also had a warrant for failure to appear, remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $3,500 bond and is set to appear today in Garland County District Court.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on Monday, an employee of the store reported that an internal audit had revealed that another employee, identified as Corea, had completed more than 70 fraudulent return transactions, totaling $2,198.12, between Oct. 15 and Jan. 23.

Corea was on scene at the time of report and was detained and brought to the Hot Springs Police Department for questioning. After being read her Miranda rights, Corea allegedly told detective Shaun Stillian she did complete all the transactions in question.

Corea further provided a detailed analysis of how she would defraud Dillard's by showing a return and then putting the dollar amount on gift cards, which she kept for herself. She would then use the fraudulent gift cards at different Dillard's locations in Arkansas to purchase items for herself, the affidavit states.

• A Hot Springs man was arrested early Tuesday on a felony forgery warrant for allegedly passing fake movie money at a local convenience store in November.

Smith
Smith

Brian Allen Smith, 47, who lists a Chapel Hill Road address, was taken into custody shortly after 2 a.m. on Siesta Street on a charge of first-degree forgery, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He was being held on $5,000 bond and is set to appear today in district court.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 28, 2018, shortly after 8:30 a.m., Smith allegedly entered the Big Red station, 2975 Malvern Ave., where he made a purchase for $12.88 and paid for it with a $20 bill.

The bill was clearly marked "replica" in several places and was also marked "this note is not legal. It is to be used for motion pictures." Smith left the scene in a white Ford Fusion and employees were able to get the license plate and provided police with security video of the incident.

Detective Phillip De Foor ran the license plate and found it returned to a 2008 Ford Fusion registered to Brian Smith in North Little Rock. He found where Smith had been arrested Feb. 27, 2018, in Hot Springs and compared his driver's license photo and last booking photo with the security video and confirmed it was him.

A warrant for Smith's arrest was issued on Dec. 13, 2018.

Local on 02/13/2019

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