Lakewood Ranch bookkeeper sentenced for fraud, larceny

A Lakewood Ranch woman was sentenced this week to one year and one day in the Florida Department of Corrections, followed by 10 years of supervised probation, after authorities say she used her position as a bookkeeper to steal from her employer.

Kimberly Meredith, 43, of Lakewood Ranch, worked as a bookkeeper for multiple Sarasota County businesses from 2018 to 2021, according to the probable cause affidavit from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The businesses were not named but were located on Sarasota Center Boulevard, the affidavit says. Sarasota Center Boulevard is east of Interstate 75, off Fruitville road, and home to several contracting and industrial businesses.

Meredith wrote and forged counterfeit checks, the affidavit says, and used company credit cards to pay for her cell phone bill, car payments, restaurant bills, medical procedures, vacations, car rentals, airline tickets and theme parks. She also wrote counterfeit checks to friends under the guise of payroll when they did not work for the companies. In sum, she caused a loss of more than $46,000 to her employer, according to the affidavit.

From 2021 to 2022 when she was relieved of her employment, Meredith intentionally changed the QuickBooks passwords to the businesses’ accounts so the owner could not access them, writing checks to herself and friends and racking up charges on the company cards, the affidavit says.

“The defendant in this case was put in a position of trust as being the bookkeeper and violated that trust by using the businesses’ finances for her own personal use,” Assistant State Attorney Amanda Morris says in a statement. “The State Attorney’s Office wants to remind employers to conduct background checks and to always monitor their financial statements and internal books each month."

Meredith pleaded guilty to fraudulent use of personal information and larceny from $20,000 to $100,000. She was sentenced Sept. 24.