A Freeport cashier has been arrested for stealing more than $13,000 from the village by altering residents’ water and electric utility payments and pocketing the cash over the past three years.
Chevelle Dubois pleaded not guilty Wednesday at Nassau County to charges of grand larceny, defrauding the government, falsifying business records and official misconduct.
Prosecutors said the 36-year-old Freeport woman collected payments from residents, recorded them in a computerized system and then altered the entry to reflect that the payment had been refunded to the resident before pocketing the money.
Dubois used the stolen cash to repay the accounts she had stolen from the previous day until the alleged scheme unraveled in May when a resident received a default notice—despite having receipts proving that he had paid the bill, authorities said.
She had stolen more than $5,000 from 22 accounts and her cash drawer was short an additional $8,000 when she was fired in June.
She was released without bail and is due back in court Sept. 18. She faces up to seven years in prison, if convicted.
