DA says she ripped off auto body shop on Route 52
A Dutchess County woman was charged Wednesday (Dec. 7) with stealing nearly $715,000 from Fishkill Auto Body on Route 52 while working as a bookkeeper for the company from December 2019 through May.
Suzanne Whitman, 55, of Poughkeepsie, is accused of depositing hundreds of company checks payable to “cash” in two personal bank accounts at Ulster Savings Bank and falsifying entries in the shop’s QuickBooks software to disguise the transactions as payments to vendors.
She is also accused of using Fishkill Auto Body’s credit card terminal to make unauthorized refunds to a card connected to her accounts at Ulster Savings, said William Grady, Dutchess County’s district attorney.
Whitman was arraigned on one count of second-degree grand larceny, 627 counts of first-degree falsifying business records and 702 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, all felonies. She was released to the supervision of the county Probation Department.
Because she has a previous felony conviction, Whitman faces five to 15 years in prison, said Grady.
