State Auditors Report Outlines Theft And Recommended Changes
Mahaska County Courthouse
Oskaloosa, Iowa – A recently released audit of the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter from the state auditors office, identifying “$13,412.43 of improper and unsupported disbursements and undeposited collections.”
The former Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter director, Lindsey Sime was sentenced in late October of 2017 to two years, less credit for time already served..
Sime pled guilty to the crimes of Credit Card Fraud (Aggravated Misdemeanor) and Theft in the Third Degree in earlier court proceedings.
“The defendant’s sentence of imprisonment is suspended conditioned on the defendant’s future good behavior, and the defendant is placed on probation to the Court for a period of two years,” explained court documents.
Sime was also ordered to pay $8,607.45 for
restitution, fines, and other costs.
The report states, “improper disbursements identified included $3,556.01 of purchases made with the Shelter’s credit card and $1,603.24 of purchases made with the Shelter’s Wal-Mart credit card. Adequate documentation was not available to determine the propriety of the $3,746.42 of unsupported disbursements identified, including $3,599.30 charged to the Shelter’s credit card and $147.12 of purchases made with the Shelter’s Wal-Mart credit card.”
The report goes on to say, ” $4,506.76 of undeposited collections from a PayPal account established for the Shelter for the period December 3, 2014, through February 28, 2017. Records for the PayPal account prior to December 3, 2014, were not available. The undeposited collections in the PayPal account were used to purchase clothing, payments to dating services, and a subscription to an Adobe® product.
The auditor’s office also reported, “it was not possible to determine if additional amounts were improperly disbursed or if all collections were properly deposited because adequate documentation was not available for all transactions.”
“The report includes recommendations to strengthen the Shelter’s internal controls and overall operations by developing policies and procedures for maintaining supporting documentation for disbursements and collections, maintaining minutes of Board meetings, and having Board members take a more active role in the day-to-day operations of the Shelter, including reviewing and approving all disbursements prior to their distribution.”
