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Former Garrard deputy clerk pleads guilty to theft

August 24, 2012|By TODD KLEFFMAN | tkleffman@amnews.com

LANCASTER — A former deputy in the Garrard County Clerk’s office faces seven years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $20,000 from the office.

Elizabeth Lane, 29, pleaded guilty last week to one count of theft more than $10,000 and eight counts of entering false information into a motor vehicle registration system. Her formal sentencing before Garrard Circuit Judge Hunter Daugherty is scheduled for Sept. 21.

Lane worked for Clerk Stacy May until May discovered problems in her records and fired Lane in June 2010. Lane then was indicted on the theft and other charges that October, following an investigation by Kentucky State Police.

The investigation found Lane voided vehicle registration payments from the system and pocketed the money in 2009 and 2010. 

A review of the office’s records by then-state Auditor Crit Luallen’s office found 877 modified transactions occurred during those two years, creating a total of $19,961 in missing funds.

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The audit report determined Lane was able to continue the scheme because she prepared the office’s weekly reports and no one reviewed her figures, allowing the altered transactions to go unnoticed. May corrected the problem by requiring two employees to review the weekly reports before they are submitted.

Along with the recommended seven-year prison sentence, Lane agreed to make full restitution to the office as part of her plea deal with prosecutors. She has to make a $5,000 payment before her sentencing on Sept. 21, court records show.

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