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Doctor's office worker accused of fraud
By JAMIE JONES SPRING HILL -- During the past two years, a Spring Hill doctor's office manager embezzled about $40,000 from her employer, according to Hernando County sheriff's investigators. Susan Oliveira, 41, of 3206 Amherst Ave. turned herself in at the county jail after a warrant was issued for her arrest on a charge of organized fraud. Besides working at Dr. William Young's family medical practice in Spring Hill for the past eight years, Oliveira is an owner of the Vanilla Bean coffee shop on Cortez Boulevard. Investigators say that Oliveira stole money from Young, a doctor at the Medical and Diagnostic Center of Spring Hill at 3071 Commercial Way. Detectives said Oliveira, who was the office manager, wrote fraudulent checks and refunded her debit card on a Visa machine to gain thousands of dollars at the office's expense. On Monday, Oliveira said her attorney, A.R. "Chip" Mander of Dade City, told her not to comment. Mander told the Times: "We're going to vigorously contest the charges." Earlier this year, another woman who works in Young's office, Judy Ptarcinski, told authorities that she found 16 receipts from the Visa machine that refunded money to a particular account from April 2000 to July 2001. Ptarcinski said she recognized the account was Oliveira's. Young told authorities he found about 46 checks from October 1999 to September 2001 that had been forged. He said he would sign checks for Oliveira and she would later change the amount or forge checks that he had never authorized. Young told detectives that Oliveira also took more than $4,000 in unauthorized vacation pay. Staff members found a note from Oliveira's husband saying the couple were having money problems and he was sure Oliveira could take some cash from Young again, according to an incident report. Young told authorities he believed his balance was $43,000 and was shocked to find only $6,000 in his account. He said Oliveira had worked for him for eight years and he trusted her. Young said he could not comment on the investigation. Oliveira was released from jail on $10,000 bail. She no longer works at Young's office. -- Jamie Jones covers law enforcement and courts in Hernando County and can be reached at 352-754-6114 or by e-mail at jjones@sptimes.com.
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