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Former mobile home park bookkeeper arrested

Authorities say that she turned herself in and admitted taking about $43,000 from the park's homeowners association.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published March 16, 2005

PORT RICHEY - The former bookkeeper for Senate Manor mobile home park was arrested Monday on a charge of stealing a hefty amount of cash from the park's homeowners association - a crime authorities learned about only because she called them to confess.

According to a Pasco County sheriff's arrest report, Susan Lori Gardner stole between $45,000 and $60,000 during a three-year period from the Port Richey mobile home park where she worked.

Instead of depositing homeowners' cash payments for maintenance and club fees, Gardner, 36, took some of the money for herself between February 2001 and July 2004, reports stated. She covered her tracks by depositing other cash payments made by people purchasing a lot in the park into the accounts she had stolen from, the report said.

Sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said Tuesday that Gardner used the money to dine out and take trips.

But no one had a clue until last summer, when Gardner hired an attorney and told him she wanted to turn herself in. On July 30, 2004, she spilled her story to Detective Jeff Peake.

The detective then called Senate Manor's homeowners association to alert them to what Gardner said had happened.

"I was surprised when I got the phone call," said Dave Curtis, who was the association's president at the time. "It was the first time that we were aware that she had been stealing from us."

The news stung the mobile home park's 386 owners, who each own a share of Senate Manor and run it as a for-profit corporation. They had trusted Gardner, one of only two people employed by the park.

The timing of her confession, however, now makes sense to Curtis. It came just a week or two after a conversation in which Curtis, 72, said he wanted to duplicate all the bookkeeper's financial records onto a computer for the association's treasurer. Curtis said Tuesday his intentions were only for efficiency's sake and that he had no idea of what Gardner was up to.

He suspects she then "saw her world crumbling around her."

Her confession led to a tedious undertaking for the association, which has spent the past eight months trying to piece together exactly what was taken and from where in order for authorities to have the evidence they needed to arrest her.

So far, the association suspects Gardner stole $62,724. Gardner, of 16803 Holland Ave. in Spring Hill, puts the number closer to $43,386. A forensic auditor hired by Senate Manor's insurance company is still investigating, Tobin said.

Gardner, who does not have a prior criminal record in Florida, was released from jail without having to post bail Tuesday evening. She faces a charge of scheming to defraud, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. She could not be reached Tuesday; her attorney, Brian Mulligan, declined to comment.

Curtis said her actions have had a lasting effect on his community. Many homeowners were angry with the association's board of directors for not catching Gardner sooner.

"It's caused some real uncomfortable situations in the park," he said. "We had all the things in place to catch something like this, but you can get lax when you trust somebody."

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 01:33:12]