St Louis Revenue employee arrested for theft www.privateofficer.com
ST. LOUIS MO July 31 2010 – A cashier in the St. Louis collector of revenue’s office is accused of stealing $1,800 in cash from her office.
Pamela Dimercurio, 47, was charged last week with felony theft. The St. Louis Police Department’s intelligence division investigated the case.
The collector’s office notified police about the missing money, and investigators zeroed in on Dimercurio.
Police say $1,000 of the missing money actually belonged to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Detective Lawrence Pleimann said in court records that the cash was scheduled to be deposited with the state Revenue Department when the theft was discovered.
Pleimann alleged that it wasn’t the first time Dimercurio stole money from the collector’s office. Pleimann said his investigation found that she previously had taken $800 in cash that belonged to the office.
Dimercurio was hired by the collector’s office in March 2007.
Court files give a wide timeframe for when the thefts happened: sometime between Dec. 1, 2008, and June 29, 2010.
But Tom Vollmer, deputy chief with the collector’s office, indicated that the actual amount missing — and the time period in which it was stolen — may end up being quite different.
He said he believes the theft happened on just one day — June 29 — and that the amount stolen is far less than $1,800.
Vollmer said the office has tight accounting procedures that detected the missing money right away. They called police, and detectives began interviewing everyone in the office who handles the money.
After the arrest, the collector’s office began an internal audit. Results of that audit won’t be complete for about two weeks. The last audit, conducted in March, found nothing missing. That outside auditor, he said, “verified every nickel.”
“Because of the checks and balances in my office internally, this happened on one specific day,” Vollmer said. “The system would have caught it. The checks and balances worked.”
Every year, about $600 million in cash and checks flows through the collector’s office. Vollmer said the office is heavily audited — about a dozen times a year.
Dimercurio was arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with the felony that covers the crime of stealing more than $500 but less than $25,000. She is free on $2,500 bond.
Dimercurio lives in the 1400 block of South 13th Street in St. Louis. She could not be reached for comment.
