(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing woman accused of embezzling $5,932 while she was a customer service representative for the Michael Gaskins Farmers Insurance Agency has been ordered to appear in court June 19.
Kimberlie A. Collier, 40, who was terminated by Gaskins on April 12 of last year, was arrested last week and released on $5,000 bail, court records show.
If convicted of embezzlement, Collier could be fined $5,000, ordered to pay restitution and imprisoned for five years, court records show.
When she was interviewed by Cushing Police Sgt. Adam Harp, “Collier denied taking any money, but admitted that during the last year that she had been taking pain medication and does not remember much,” an affidavit said.
“I asked Collier if it was possible that she might have taken money while she was on the pain medication and she just didn’t remember and she didn’t know,” Harp wrote in his affidavit
“Collier said that she would be willing to pay Farmers Insurance the amount, but again denied remembering taking any money,” Harp’s affidavit said.
The alleged embezzlement of $5,932 in cash premium payments between June 2012 and April 2013 — intended for Farmers Insurance — was discovered by company Internal Audit Investigator Brent Schuller, the affidavit said.
Collier, who worked for the insurance agency in Cushing for seven years, “was authorized to accept customer premiums to the insureds’ policies and remit all premium payments to Farmers Insurance,” the affidavit said.
“On April 12, 2013, an insured presented a handwritten receipt to Agent Gaskins written by Collier for a policy that was not in force.
“Further investigation by Agent Gaskins revealed the cash premium was never entered into the system, the policy did not exist and the cash premium was missing.
“In addition, other fiduciary concerns were discovered including several cash receipts voided by Collier,” the affidavit alleged.
Internal Audit performed an in-depth review of the receipts issued by the Gaskins Agency over the prior 12 months and found a total of 59 voided cash receipts involving 33 different insureds, the affidavit said.
“Internal Audit then reviewed the insureds’ policies associated with each of the voided receipts and found that the payments were not applied to the insureds’ accounts nor were the payments remitted to Farmers Insurance,” the affidavit said.
“All of the voided cash receipts were input and voided by Collier,” the affidavit alleged.
“Gaskins said that on April 11, 2013, a customer came to his business and went into another agent’s office and provided a handwritten receipt for a policy that did not exist.
“Gaskins said that the handwritten receipt was issued by Collier. Gaskins said that he confronted Collier about the handwritten receipt and asked if she knew anything about it and she said that she did not.
“Gaskins said that the next day, April 12, 2013, that he attempted to speak with Collier again about the issue and she again denied taking any money and began packing up her belongings.
“Gaskins said that later on that day that Collier’s husband came to the business and after he left that she mysteriously found $320 cash for a customer,” the affidavit alleged.
“Gaskins said that he terminated Collier,” that same day, the affidavit said.
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