
By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Yale woman has been given a two-year prison term followed by 18 years of probation with an order to pay $186,000 restitution for embezzling from Wheeldock Company while she was employed as the Stillwater firm’s bookkeeper, a position she held for six years, court records show.
Donna Jones Stanford, 63, who admitted her guilt on Sept.17, was sentenced in accordance with a plea bargain with the prosecution that was approved in court by Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler last week, court records show.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent Charles R. Dancer was asked on Sept. 9, 2017, by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy George Disel to assist in the investigation, court records show.
On Sept. 21, 2017, the owner of Wheeldock Company told the OSBI agent that he had hired Stanford as his company bookkeeper on Sept. 9, 2011, and fired her on Aug. 21, 2017, an affidavit said.
After Stanford was fired, the Wheeldock Company owner discovered that Stanford “had fraudulently obtained four credit cards,” in the name of the company and the owner, the OSBI agent’s affidavit said.
“Stanford made numerous unauthorized personal purchases with these credit cards,” and with credit cards of two other employees the affidavit said.
“The unauthorized credit card purchases totaled $166,036. Stanford also wrote fraudulent Wheeldock company checks to herself and family for advances, vacation and overtime. The total amount Stanford embezzled was $185,739,” the affidavit said.
The Wheeldock owner had three company credit cards, two of which he did not use, that Stanford “had obtained fraudulent duplicates of,” the affidavit said. Stanford also fraudulently obtained two other separate company credit cards, the affidavit said.
Stanford pleaded guilty to three counts of embezzlement occurring between Jan 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2017, for which the maximum penalty could have been a 30-year prison term and a $30,000 fine, court records show.
***