Crimes Nearby: Atlantic Beach Woman Charged with Stealing $250K

The following press release is from the office of the Nassau County District Attorney. It has been edited by Patch. The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

An Atlantic Beach woman was arrested Thursday and charged with allegedly stealing more than $250,000 from the architect she worked for, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced.

Doreen Goucher, 62, is charged with one count of grand larceny in the second degree and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. She is scheduled to be arraigned later today in First District Court in Hempstead.

Between June 2006 and December 2011, Goucher used her position as bookkeeper for a local architect — where she had worked for 14 years until she was fired in December 2011 — to allegedly withdraw $258,731 from company accounts without permission or authority from her employer, Rice said. She disguised the thefts by creating unauthorized personal credit and loan accounts that appeared to be legitimate company accounts.

“Her position gave her unrestricted and unsupervised access to the firm’s bank accounts,” according to the DA.

Goucher allegedly forged her employer’s signature on about 116 checks and then used those checks to pay off her personal credit cards and a home equity loan. Goucher also allegedly used the stolen money to pay for dinners at expensive restaurants, shopping, and lavish vacations, Rice said.

The theft was discovered when an internal audit of the company’s finances was performed and discrepancies were discovered, and then turned over to the DA’s Office for further investigation in January 2012.

“Ms. Goucher lived the high life on her boss’s dime, but her arrest was guaranteed once she wrote that first phony check,” Rice said in a press release. “Workplace theft victimizes every employee and every customer by driving up costs and reducing revenues, and my office will continue to work with businesses to ensure that internal thieves are arrested and brought to justice.”

Assistant District Attorney William Jorgenson of the Government & Consumer Frauds Bureau is prosecuting the case for the DA’s Office. Goucher is represented by Mark Silverman, Esq.