A Cape Coral woman used a work-issued credit card more than 120 times at a casino and cashed work-related checks ultimately taking more than $106,000 from her employer, police say.
Stephenie Lynn Parramore, 49, is facing felony charges of scheme to defraud $50,000 or more, grand theft over $100,000 and uttering forged bills, checks, drafts, or notes.
Parramore was arrested May 19 by the Cape Coral Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit and later released. A bond amount was not specified. Police issued a news release on Tuesday.
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Court documents said the owner of the small business affected reviewed his America Express card and found Parramore conducted 122 unauthorized transactions each in the amount of $500 totaling $61,000. He also found she had, without authorization, endorsed, cashed and/or deposited approximately 82 unauthorized checks totaling $45,524.31.
The 13-year-old company works with environmental and technical products.
According to court documents, funds taken from a bank account Parramore created were used for personal expenses, restaurants, gas stations, retail shopping, cash withdrawals, cell phone payments, insurance premium payments, credit card payments, and electronic funds transfers through CashApp and Zelle and gambling venues.
Funds were also used, the court documents showed, for two accounts specifically used to fund or contact jail or prison inmates, JPay and GTL Inmate.
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Parramore created a second account she used in a limited manner, the documents showed, for online transfers from the first account and IRS Treasury deposits.
No checks or cash deposits were made to this account during the time period noted and debits were comprised of only online transfers to the first bank account.
A report from Cape Coral police said Parramore was working in her capacity as an office manager at the business , and misappropriated funds for her own personal benefits totaling approximately $106,524.31 from March through July 2021.
She was employed by the company in January 2020 and issued a company credit card, court and police records showed.
The business owner discovered the casino spending during a review of the credit card statement, a police report said.
According to those documents, Parramore wrote checks to herself and forged and or copied the business owner’s signature on several occasions.
The business owner said he had confronted Parramore about the numerous transactions at Vegas III, a legal, machine-operated casino in Cape Coral.
The business owner told police he attempted to work with Parramore to make restitution for the unauthorized transactions but then discovered the unauthorized checks.
A police report said the company filed a claim with American Express disputing the charges and was reimbursed approximately $12,500. However, due to the dispute and credit from American Express, a civil suit has been filed against the company by Vegas Ill seeking $37,500.
Social media accounts purporting to be Parramore’s show a photo of a family member holding a payout ticket from another Cape Coral machine-operated casino.
A woman who answered a phone number listed for Parramore said she wasn’t available.
“Don’t call back,” the woman said, and hung up.
Parramore is listed in Florida state prison records under Stephenie Parramore-Hand, and a dozen other aliases, as having served time on grand theft, fraud and forged check charges in 2008 and 2013. She was last released from prison in 2019.
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