PROVIDENCE – A Pawtucket woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison for her her scheme to defraud her employer, an auto body repair shop, of more than $220,000, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced Friday.
Idalee Johnston, 48, pleaded guilty on Oct. 13, 2021, to mail fraud. While serving as a secretary at Ideal Auto Body in Cranston, Johnston created a scheme in which she pocketed the proceeds from roughly 190 checks provided to customers by their insurance companies as payment for vehicle repairs.
According to charging documents, beginning in 2016, Johnston used two methods to obtain these funds: in some cases, she would not have customers sign direct payment forms that would have caused their insurance payments to be made directly to the auto body shop for repair work; in other cases, where customers did sign payment forms, she would not forward them to the insurance companies. As a result, insurance checks to pay for repairs were sent directly to customers who, in turn, at Johnston’s direction, then provided the checks to her as a representative of the business.
Johnston previously admitted to the court that she deposited some of the checks into her bank account. In other instances, stolen checks were provided to family members to be deposited into their bank accounts, and later, at her direction, these family members provided her with most of the funds.
The scheme continued for two years, resulting in a loss to the auto body business of more than $220,000, according to court documents.
Johnston was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $220,083. She was also sentenced to two years of federal supervised release after serving her time in prison.
