A.B. woman charged with embezzling

An Atlantic Beach woman who allegedly stole more than $250,000 from her former employer was arrested Thursday morning.

Doreen Goucher, 62, is being charged with one count of grand larceny-second degree. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison. She was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Thursday.

According to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, Goucher used her position as a bookkeeper for a local architect to withdraw $258,731 from the company’s bank accounts between June 2006 and December 2011 without permission or authority from her employer. The position she held gave her unrestricted and unsupervised access to the firm’s accounts.

Goucher forged her employer’s signature on approximately 116 checks and then used the money to pay off her personal credit cards and a home equity loan.

She hid the alleged thefts by establishing unauthorized personal credit loan accounts that appeared to be legitimate company accounts. Goucher allegedly also used the stolen money to pay for dinners at upscale restaurants, shopping and lavish vacations, the DA’s office said.

The theft was found when an internal audit of the company’s finances was conducted and discrepancies were discovered, which were then turned over to the DA’s office for further investigation in January of last year. Goucher worked for the company for 14 year before being fired in December 2011.

“Ms. Goucher lived the high life on her boss’s dime, but her arrest was guaranteed once she wrote that first phony check,” said Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice. “Workplace theft victimizes every employee and every customer by driving up costs and reducing revenues, and my office will continue to work with businesses to ensure that internal thieves are arrested and brought to justice.”