Crime & Safety

Weymouth Woman Sent to Prison for Stealing Over $700,000 from Employer

A Weymouth woman will spend time behind bars for a fraud scheme in which she stole approximately $701,826 from her employer.

WEYMOUTH, MA — A Weymouth woman will spend time behind bars for a fraud scheme in which she stole approximately $701,826 from her employer.

Katelin Garland, 39, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $656,825. In November 2016, Garland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Garland’s former employer previously recovered approximately $45,000 that Garland stole, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

As an administrative manager for a company in Massachusetts, Garland was responsible for depositing checks received, maintaining the record-keeping system, and requesting checks payable for entities in connection with business services. From approximately October 2011 to October 2015, Garland took advantage of flaws in her employer’s accounting and auditing systems and requested checks payable to fictitious names, which she then endorsed and deposited to a bank account she controlled. To conceal the scheme, Garland made false entries in her employer’s record-keeping system concerning those payments. Garland used the funds to pay for living expenses, tickets to sporting events, private school tuition for her children, as well as to purchase a boat, travel and shop.

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A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office was used in this article.

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