Secretary charged with stealing $50G from company

An executive secretary at an Inwood business was arrested Tuesday night and charged with siphoning more than $50,000 from her employer by forging company checks and misusing the employer's credit cards, Nassau police said.

Lynnette Harrison, 41, of Franklin Square, was charged with grand larceny and possession of a forged instrument, police said.

Harrison, of Woodcliff Drive, forged 22 checks in the eight-month period ending in March, making the checks out for more than $32,000 and depositing them in her personal account, police said.

Harrison also had access to the victim's credit cards and fraudulently used them to charge more than $23,000 in goods and services, police said.

The employer, which police did not immediately publicize, called the bank after finding that company bills were going unpaid, said Det. Sgt. Thomas Reilly of the Nassau police property crimes squad.

The company is Prism Consultants LLC, according to the Nassau district attorney's office.

Prism calls itself "the leader in workers' compensation claims management," according to its telephone answering machine.

A man answering the phone who would not give his name said the firm has been around for about 13 years.

"We have nothing to say about the matter," the man said. "We would rather it be handled completely away from us."

The bank looked and discovered that company money was being deposited into a personal account belonging to Harrison -- at the same bank, HSBC, Reilly said.

An ensuing Nassau policeinvestigation resulted in Harrison's arrest. Harrison, who started at the company in May 2007 and was fired following the fraud allegations, was to be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead.

-- Staff Writer Matthew Chayes contributed to this story.

By BY JOSEPH MALLIA
Posted Saturday, May 10, 2008

 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page