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Stacey Butler reportingProsecutors have charged an employee of a high-tech Utah company with stealing thousands of dollars and using the money to pay off his credit card debt and a home repair bill.
Prosecutors say the 41 year old employee of Evans and Sutherland used his position as an accounting manager to write himself six checks totaling almost 48 thousand dollars.
According to court documents, Richard Brashear oversaw the accounts payable section of the Evans and Sutherland accounting department. While he was employed for one year during 2001, he allegedly wrote company checks for work done on his personal home, totaling 18 thousand dollars. Prosecutors say he wrote himself checks totaling 30 thousand dollars to pay off personal credit card debt. A crime the District Attorney's Office is prosecuting more and more.
Kent Morgan, Salt Lake Co. District Attorney's Office: "AS THE ECONOMY IS CLAMPED DOWN, PEOPLE ARE MORE TEMPTED TO TAKE THESE CHANCES SO TO SPEAK."
Evans and Sutherland managers became aware of the problem when they noticed a discrepancy in their accounts.
Brashear faces two second degree felony counts of theft that carry a maximum penalty of fifteen years each.
