Former Dealership Employee to Serve 15 Months for Embezzlement
The former office manager of DeLaBruere's Auto Sales in Vermont will be serving 15 months in prison and paying more than $368,000 in restitution for stealing cash from the dealership and writing fake checks to cover it up.
NEWPORT, Vt. — A former employee of DeLaBruere's Auto Sales, Inc., will be serving 15 months in federal prison for her part in an embezzlement scheme at the dealership. She took about $368,000 while working as the store’s office manager, the Burlington Free Press reports.
Manon Cote, 47, must pay restitution to the dealership and to Sentry Insurance and Zurich American Insurance. She admitted to writing company checks to unauthorized persons in amounts equal to the sums of cash she was stealing from the dealership’s daily receipts.
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