Oak Creek Resident Racks Up $38,000 in Fraudulent Charges at Mount Pleasant Company

OAK CREEK -- An Oak Creek woman has been accused of stealing more than $38,000 from a Mount Pleasant business and has been formally charged in court.

Adrian Barrera, 39, has been charged with felony theft in a business setting and if convicted faces up to 10 years imprisonment or up to $25,000 in fines, or both.

According to her criminal complaint, Barrera made $38,420.98 in fraudulent credit card charges to Titan, Inc., 9900 Durand Ave. over an 18-month period by using the company's official credit cards.

Police say Barrera had been hired as an accounting assistant and part of her job responsibilities had been to pay Titan's monthly credit card statments and expense accounts.

In June 2015, about 9 months after she had resigned her employment at Titan, employees discovered questionable activity on its AT&T mobile telephone bill, the complaint said.

Upon investigation, they learned that Barrera purchased an iPad through Titan's official account, the criminal complaint said.

That purchase led Titan employees to look further into their company's finances. It wasn't too much later before Titan employees learned that Barrera charged a myriad of personal expenses to the company including fuel, food, travel, cellular bills, clothing, liquor, an electric bill, furniture, legal fees, home improvment supplies, roundritp airfare, and two charges for Royal Caribbean cruise lines, the complaint said.

An official restitution request has been filed by Titan, Inc. in the amount of $40,756.53 on July 18.

Barrera next has a preliminary hearing on August 17, 2016 at 09:00 am.