Arizona accounting clerk sentenced to 5 years for embezzling from business, charity

PHOENIX – An accounting clerk who embezzled over $100,000 from an Arizona charity organization and a local business was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday, authorities said.

In April, a jury found 38-year-old Prescott resident Sheena Holmes guilty of theft over $25,000 and theft over $100,000, according to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office.

Her sentence for the crimes includes seven years of probation following her prison term.

Prosecutors said Holmes stole over $30,000 for a construction supply business before bilking over $111,000 from a charity that serves the Prescott-area homeless community.

“Ms. Holmes stole from a local business that trusted her and also from a charity that helps the homeless and poor,” Yavapai County Attorney Dennis McGrane said in a press release. “I want to be clear that criminals who choose to do this in Yavapai County will be vigorously prosecuted.

“Ms. Holmes will now spend a half-decade in prison. I hope that sentence will deter others from stealing what is not theirs.”

How was theft from Arizona charity discovered?

Holmes embezzled from the construction supply business in late 2021 and early 2022 and quit that job after four months, prosecutors said.

She was hired by the Arizona charity as an accounting clerk before a new accountant for her previous employer discovered the business theft.

The second theft was discovered when Prescott Police Department detectives investigating the business theft contacted the charity organization that had hired Holmes.

Holmes stole from the charity’s thrift store, low-income housing income and shelter fees, prosecutors said.

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