Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Police: Woman stole gift cards

The cards were meant for students, but a former USF accountant is accused of getting an employee to give them to her.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published August 26, 2005

ZEPHYRHILLS - It was a University of South Florida program to help prepare low-income students for high school and then college. The federal grant allowed incentives for the kids: gift cards from Target, Wal-Mart and Regal Cinemas.

But more than $18,000 in gift cards never reached needy students, authorities say.

Instead, $4,100 went to former university accountant Sonia Dudley, according to USF, and she's a suspect in another $14,500 that is missing.

Dudley, 39, was arrested Tuesday after 22 days at her new job, as a secretary at Zephyrhills High School, on a grand theft arrest warrant issued by the USF Police Department in Tampa.

The arrest warrant accuses the Zephyrhills woman and ex-university employee of stealing only $4,100, said USF police Sgt. Mike Klingebiel.

What about the missing $14,500?

"It's up to the (Hillsborough) State Attorney's Office to determine exactly what they're going to charge the defendant with," Klingebiel said.

The federally funded program was called GEAR-UP: Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. It was phased out in fall 2003, according to a USF police report, but about $18,000 in gift cards were still purchased from the defunct program's account.

Dudley obtained the gift cards between August 2003 and June 2005, the university police said, though she had no access to the school's financial accounting system.

Instead, USF said Dudley persuaded another employee with access to a university Visa card to buy the gift cards and give them to her.

"The witness who made the purchases believed (Dudley) could make those instructions," Klingebiel said.

Dudley did so in person and using e-mail, the witness told USF, then took the gift cards herself.

It was April 8, according to the university, that an auditor asked Dudley why her signature appeared on a $500 receipt from March 25. Dudley said she didn't know, according to the report.

The next day she turned over $4,100 in Target and Wal-Mart gift cards she said had been in her home - but they were substitute cards, USF said, bought with her own money, not the university's.

The substitute cards were confiscated, Klingebiel said.

Dudley worked for the Pasco County School District from August 2001 to March 2003 but likely will lose her current job because of her arrest within the 90-day probationary period. Officials don't suspect Dudley of misusing district money.

Dudley, of 36243 Lake Chase Blvd., was arrested in 2002 by Dade City police on charges of failure to appear in court and obtaining property with worthless checks.

She posted $5,000 bail on Tuesday.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:50:27]