An Erie, Pa.-woman accused of embezzling over $100,000 from the eye physician she once worked for has waived her criminal case to court, Erie Times-News reported Aug. 8.
Carol Harrington waived to court on felony counts of forgery, theft, writing bad checks, access device fraud and receiving stolen property. She waived the charges two days before she was scheduled to appear in court for her preliminary hearing on the case.
In May, Ms. Harrington was accused of writing herself checks from the practice and making unauthorized purchases using company funds.
She was arraigned May 14 following a criminal complaint filed by local police. In January 2023, she was investigated by police after a physician at the eye center reported a theft of an estimated $50,000.
A subsequent forensic audit done on Family Eye Care's business accounts revealed the amount to be closer to $100,000. Ms. Harrington is reported to have made unauthorized purchases and created false checks using a stamp containing a physician's signature.
An audit of her own bank account revealed the checks deposited reflected the total of the unauthorized checks taken from the practice. Ms. Harrington worked at the practice from 2015 to 2022. A physician noticed discrepancies between QuickBooks entries and the copies of checks received just before she left the practice.
Ms. Harrington allegedly tried to write the practice's physician a check for $5,000 to make up for the stolen funds and admitted to having a gambling problem.