Woman accused of stealing from former employer

May 09, 2008 10:45 pm

— By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — A Joplin-area woman faces a pretrial conference May 21 on felony charges that she stole from her former employer.
Sheryl L. Kerr, 37, who lives at 19896 Golden Lane in the Joplin area, is accused in Newton County Circuit Court of stealing thousands from her former employer, Loren Hill.
The probable-cause statement says Hill provided authorities with bank-account records that show unauthorized or duplicated payroll checks made out to Kerr personally, and to her business, All Around Guttering.
All told, court records indicate Kerr received unauthorized checks from four businesses owned by Hill or his family, and that a search showed the checks were deposited into Kerr’s account without Loren Hill’s permission or knowledge.
The probable-cause statement alleges $46,976.12 worth of checks came out of a business account for The Well Dressed clothing shop, owned by Hill’s daughter, and went to Kerr. Another $21,005.37 came out of Hill’s RV Park account, as well as $7,156.04 worth of checks from a convenience store, and another $1,027.77 worth of unauthorized checks out of Hill’s Drilling business account were all deposited into Kerr’s account.
A message left with John Briggs, a Joplin attorney representing Kerr, was not returned on Friday.
Hill, 64, said he hired Kerr three years ago to manage his convenience store, Shoal Creek Plaza, located next to his Shoal Creek RV and Campground park on Highway 71 near Tipton Ford.
“She was real good on computers,” said Hill. “She ran the whole shooting match.”
Hill said he sold the convenience store a year ago because “we just could never make any money.”
“We never made a dime,” he said in a phone interview on Friday. “I had to sell it off and ante up another $59,000 to pay off the fuel account.”
Hill said it wasn’t until after he sold the store and Kerr started working at his other business, Hill’s Drilling, that he became suspicious.
A discrepancy came to light, Hill said, after he sold the store, and the new owner complained that he was not receiving payments from truckers who used Fuel Man fuel cards.
Hill said the checks are mailed each month, and that he personally told Kerr to make arrangements for the checks to go to the new owner. Six months later, he said, those checks still weren’t going to the appropriate channel.
Hill said at that point, he began to pull check records and discovered the alleged theft.