By Jim Wallace - bio | email
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - The Dougherty District Attorney says with the recession growing, he expects to see more white collar crimes such as fraud and computer theft.
Wednesday two South Georgia business people were indicted by the Dougherty Grand Jury, each charged in separate cases with stealing tens of thousands of dollars.
31-year-old Veronica Hunt Parrish of Leesburg was indicted on 104 counts of forgery and computer theft. Parrish was an accountant for Business Counselors of Albany, handling Tarva Plantation's Account. Prosecutors say starting in November 2007 she cashed at least 26 checks from their account, most for more than two thousand dollars.
"Approximately $60,000 was taken over a period of time," said District Attorney Greg Edwards.
The indictment charged Parrish cashed the final check February 7th for $2,250.
The Grand Jury also indicted 46-year-old Robert David Wilkerson of Midland on felony forgery and theft by deception charges. The indictment charges Wilkerson was hired by the County to do construction work on the Jail, and forged the contract to change the contract price from $193,000 to $300,000.
"There was an attempt to get more money based on work that was done allegedly by sub-contractors," Edwards said.
The D. A. said he expects to see an increase in forgery and theft cases like these. "We can expect more white collar type crimes. As I've already mentioned you can expect more scams. With the financial times being what they are, there will be more persons that will try to take advantage of people by any means that they can find."
Edwards said businesses should need to keep a vigilant eye on their employees who handle money.
Both Wilkerson and Parrish were indicted Wednesday afternoon by the Grand Jury. Neither has been arrested yet.
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