An Atmore woman is facing felony theft and fraud charges after an investigation of employee activity reports at her place of employment in Century revealed she systematically defrauded and misrepresented to obtain property or cash.
Charissa Leigh Clarke, 31, 139 Sowell Ave., was arrested April 14 following an almost year-long investigation that revealed she and other employees at Fusion Liquor, Inc. created accounts for customers but assigned reward points to those accounts using sales of product not associated with those accounts, according to an Escambia County Sheriff's Office report.
At the end of each shift, each employee would reconcile the daily transaction by either taking possession of product of taking possession of US currency equal to the amount of assigned points. The points are accumulated as 1 point equals $1 in product as in $30 bottle equals 30 points; 1 point equals 5 cents cash value and 10 cents on Tuesday.
The report said Clarke was responsible for $1,200 of the total $3,101 between March 22, 2018 and May 13, 2018, when she was employed by the company. Two other employees who were questioned about their actions told law enforcement that Clarke had showed them the process and didn't think they had done anything wrong.
Based on the fact that the store sales were reconciled on a daily basis and points could be used for purchase, the inventory did not reflect whether the employee took product or cash or both.
The report said some accounts created were under fictitious names, while others identified by name were also friends and family of the employees and were assigned points regularly according to the transaction amount.
Clarke was arrested April 19 and transported to Escambia County Jail and given a bond of $7,500.
