CHARLESTON, S.C. — Debbie Collins, who once ran the office at the Charleston Yacht Club, has been sentenced to five years after admitting she charged personal expenses to the club credit cards, the Solicitor’s Office for the 9th Circuit said Monday.
Collins entered a guilty plea on Oct. 13 to breach of trust with a value under $10,000, choosing that over a jury trial. The case was investigated by the Charleston Police Department.
Prosecutors said Collins worked as the club office manager from November 2018 until February 2020. The job gave her use of the club cards for business spending, and she was the person who printed each card statement and passed it, with matching receipts, to the club bookkeeper for payment.
That arrangement unraveled in early 2020. The bookkeeper grew suspicious of some charges, went straight to the card company for its copy of the latest statement and found that it did not line up with the version Collins had supplied.
According to the solicitor’s office, the personal spending covered airline tickets, hotel stays, car repairs and Amazon orders, and Collins disguised it with false invoices and edited statements. When club managers confronted her, she admitted using the card and was fired.
This was not her first conviction. Prosecutors said she was found guilty of financial identity fraud in 2019, and five years before that, in 2014, of a breach of trust valued above $10,000. Both cases came before her time at the club.
Section: More Charleston SC crime news
Filed under: Charleston SC Crime News
