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Elberta Embezzlement

By Debbie Williams Reporter

Small businesses everywhere are struggling to survive. A family run shop in Elberta was having an especially difficult time making a profit and had blamed the slumping economy. Elberta Embezzlement

Published: Tue, August 12, 2008 - 5:14 pm Last Updated: Tue, August 12, 2008 - 6:10 pm

Debbie Williams

Small businesses everywhere are struggling to survive. A family run shop in Elberta was having an especially difficult time making a profit and had the slumping economy.
Boats and diesel engines have been Charlie Stewart's business for more than two decades. He works hard but the last couple of years he just couldn't seem to get ahead. "Labor to me equals money but it just didn't feel like we were getting anywhere."
Then a credit card company called. "Capital One called me and told me I was over my credit limit and a day over due on my bill. I don't have a Capital One card," says Stewart.
The credit card was just the tip of the iceberg. Someone was stealing from the company and had been for a while. The person eventually arrested was someone that hit very close to home.
"She's the daughter in law of the business owner," says Elberta Police Chief Gary Peaden. Victoria Stewart faces both state and federal charges. "We have found over 42 thousand dollars of checks that she had forged the owners name to."
It's still hard for Stewart to believe, "There's a lot of emotions. It's your sons wife, it's your grand-children's mother, it's your daughter in law and some one you love and trusted. Before that I would have fought with anybody who had of said she had been doing that."
The business has survived and is recovering. "But it hurts in a small business when you give them a Christmas bonus and the next month they take their own bonus," says Stewart.
In the end Stewart says it is his daughter in law who lost the most.
In all authorities believe Victoria Stewart embezzled around 65 thousand dollars over two and a half years using forged checks, credit card fraud and fraudulent wire transfers. She is currently free on bond.

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carl Says:

Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:23 am

I don’t remember anyone having that much money in the old days. Guess i was too busy chasing girls and good dogs, not one and the same.

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BamaBob Says:

Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:08 am

One of my uncles own a contracting business in central Mississippi. He needed some cash to cover some unexpected expense on a construction site, so he told his daughter to move some cash out of one account into another. She had to let him know that first account was empty. His own granddaughter had taken him for over $250,000 in a business account and about $15,000 out of one of his personal accounts before he caught on.
. That was about as low as a person could go. I just don’t remember people being this way back in the old days.

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mustuknow Says:

Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:01 am

It is a shame that once again money is the root of evil and that a parent has chose money over her family. I do not know these people but from one of the post that said she picks and choses when she wants to see them, it leads me to believe that the son and grandsons are estranged from the wife/mother/embezzeler. In defense of the son, most married men have no idea what it takes to run a household, keeps the kids involved in their extracurricular activities, etc. I doubt the husband really had any reason to question his wife, more than likely he was just happy that they were an average working class couple able to provide for themselves and their children. I for one hope that the wife/mother can and wants to get help for what she has done and that she makes restitution to her family and her in laws.

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zellers2 Says:

Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 8:38 am

I can’t believe the ignorance of the previous posts. 1)To honestly think that she is welcome back into the family, you must be out of your mind. Thanksgiving will come and go without visualization. 2)If you honestly think that his son knew anything about what was going on you don’t know him, the immediate family, or our extended family. And you haven’t seen what this has done to him and his boys. She picks and chooses when she wants to see them. 3) If anyone knew what she was doing, look to her friends and her family, no one on the side knew what was going on.

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Tide Fan Says:

Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 2:53 pm

They will all be best friends again by thanksgiving.

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RNuts Says:

Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Good point. That explains why she has already been able to post a bond. I am sure the son is playing dumb and the dad knows it.

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Wait4Me Says:

Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 12:38 pm

Mr. Stewart, don’t stop at the daughter in law,I hate to say this, but, she coun’t have kept this a secret for so long with out your son or someone knowing about something, new stuff in the house, bills being paid but no money from thier account, wife spending spree, something. Somebody had to know or help her hide this along the way.

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