Welch was sentenced to 18 months in prison and supervised probation for five years after she pled guilty to the theft of nearly $300,000 from the probate office.
Welch was charged with a class B felony.
Welch was a bookkeeper for the Chambers County Probate Office between the years of 2013 and 2017. She was responsible for verifying the amount of money collected each day and correcting any discrepancies. Her position’s responsibility was to combine all collected money thru out a workday and prepare a deposit slip and take the money to the bank.
Investigators from the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts noted numerous instances where the amount of cash recorded on the deposit slip by the bookkeeper and the cash deposited into the bank was less than the amount of cash collected by the clerks and verified by the
bookkeeper.
The plea agreement states that Welch has agreed to pay restitution for the full amount of the stolen funds. Current Probate Judge Paul Story said, “ It will be very hard to recoup the taxpayers money thru restitution.”
“This situation has not been detrimental to the county funds, it has been detrimental to the funds for the probate office itself and affected how it runs,” said Judge Story.
The news of this story was originally released a few days before the general election at which Story beat the seated Probate Judge Brandi Easlick. Story stated, “ We now have further checks and balances within our office, we have increased accountability for not only employees but myself also.”
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Welch pleads guilty of embezzling $300k from probate court
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