Florida woman stole $50K from doctor’s office where she worked
THIS BLOG IS OUT-OF-DATE!
This blog was moved in 2019 and renamed "Dental FraudBusters"
Oct 2018 – A Tavernier woman was arrested this week after detectives say she stole more than $50,000 in cash over the course of five years from the doctor’s office where she worked and handled bank deposits.
Mary Ellen MItchell-Irizarry, 40, was arrested on felony fraud and larceny charges Wednesday and released later that day on $30,000 bond. She declined to comment when reached by phone Friday afternoon.
Detectives began investigating the case in May after a physician at Mariners Hospital, Dr. Eileen Turbessi, called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to report that Mitchell-Irizarry, whom she said she fired in March, stole tens of thousands of dollars in cash from the practice, according to Detective Jacques Rozek’s arrest affidavit.
Detectives looked at six years worth of records and discovered that Mitchell-Irizarry, who was a clerk responsible for, among other duties, taking cash to the bank, was creating two deposit slips every day — one for the billing company and one for the bank, according to the report.
The deposit slips that were generated for the billing company did not match the deposits to the bank, Rozek stated. The billing company deposit slips showed cash being deposited, but the bank deposit slips showed there was no cash, only credit card and check payments, detectives say.
Mitchell-Irazarry made the bogus deposit slips from January 2013 through March of this year, when she was fired, according to the arrest report.
In total, detectives say she stole $50,161.27 from Turbessi’s office.
