Couple enter guilty pleas in fraud case

A long-serving president of a public water district in Vernon and Bates counties and his wife pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to embezzling more than $390,000 from the district in a mail-fraud conspiracy.

Stephen C. Collier and his wife, Sharron K. Collier, both 62 and from Rich Hill, entered pleas in U.S. District Court in Kansas City.

Stephen Collier served on the board of Public Water Supply District No. 4 from 1978 through April 2007, and was president of the board for much of that time, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri said in a news release. His wife served as clerk of the district for 10 years before being fired in 2007.

With their pleas, the Colliers admitted that they conspired to defraud the district from 1999 to 2007 by creating a fictitious company called American Expressways that they represented as a consulting firm engaged in legitimate business with the district, the U.S. attorney’s office said. The couple then opened separate American Express credit card accounts to charge personal items and expenses, and submitted the bills to the district under the name of American Expressways, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

After she was fired in April or May of 2007, Sharron Collier opened a mailbox account in Joplin in the name of American Expressways and began mailing invoices to the district using the post office box as the return address.

Under the terms of a plea agreement with the federal prosecutor’s office, the Colliers have agreed to pay $390,367 in restitution and to forfeit their 120-acre farm to assist in making restitution. The couple are subject to a sentence of up to five years in prison without parole and a fine up to $250,000.

The U.S. attorney’s office said a sentencing hearing will be scheduled after a pre-sentence investigation is completed.