$300k unaccounted for at Probate office

An audit of the records of the Chambers County Probate Office has revealed that a former longtime employee at the office has been arrested after being suspected in the theft of nearly $300,000 from the county office over the term of their employment. The individual suspected in the theft has now been
arrested and charged and ordered to repay the missing funds. Chambers County Probate Judge Brandy Easlick released the information last week regarding the theft and subsequent charging of former employee Rene Hunt Welch. A nearly year-long investigation by the Alabama Examiner’s Office has revealed that Welch is suspected of the theft of exactly $299,861.68 from the Probate Office during the course of her employment at the office.

In a statement released on Friday by Judge Easlick she stated, “As your Probate Judge, I have always maintained transparency with the citizens of Chambers County. Whether the information was simply informative, good, bad, or otherwise. I have vowed to remain transparent to the people of Chambers County about your Probate Office and I continue to uphold my promise”. As Judge Easlick continues her statement she goes into depth about the nearly year-long investigation by the Alabama State Examiners Office and the discovery by that agency that a former employee of the Probate Office had circumvented the safeguards and internal controls put in place and allegedly took $299,861.68 of the office’s funds over the term of her employment.

Easlick goes on to note that she was aware of the investigation, but up until Friday she was unable to release information on the investigation to the public. Easlick has vowed to continue to work with the auditors to ensure that the Chambers County Probate Office remains in compliance with the investigation and puts in place whatever safeguards need to be installed to prevent further deception in the office.

The state auditor’s office completed an in-depth investigation into the Chambers County Probate Office. An 86-page report was made public on Friday that spanned a period from November 2014 to October 2017. During the time period analyzed by investigators and auditors it was discovered that $299,861.18 was missing from the accounts of the Probate Office. The investigation revealed that on numerous instances the amount of cash recorded on deposit slips by the bookkeeper and later deposited into the bank, was less than the amount of cash collected by the clerk’s office and verified by the bookkeeper says the report. At the time the investigation was ongoing, Rene Hunt Welch was working as the bookkeeper at the Probate Office.

Rene Hunt Welch was arrested and booked into the Chambers County Detention Facility over the weekend and charged with Theft of Property. Records show that 56-year-old Welch has since bonded out of the jail. The Alabama Examiner Office has ordered the former bookkeeper to repay the missing funds to the county. There is no word on when a trial date is expected for the former bookkeepers theft charges. In her statement Judge Brandy Easlick states, “ I take my job as the keeper of public funds very seriously and will prosecute her to the fullest extent of the law.”

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$300k unaccounted for at Probate office