SMETHPORT — A former Eldred Borough secretary who was accused earlier this year of stealing thousands of dollars has pleaded guilty.
Robin C. Mazurkiewicz, 55, of Eldred, entered a guilty plea Thursday in McKean County Court to charges of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, a third-degree felony; and tampering with public records, a second-degree misdemeanor.
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer said that between Jan. 1, 2014, and March 31, 2018, Mazurkiewicz failed to deposit $24,500 of borough funds into the proper account.
In her position at the borough, Mazurkiewicz was responsible for taking sewer and waste payments from customers and depositing them, Shaffer said. She would take the payment money, but erase the transaction from the borough’s system.
Court records filed at the time of Mazurkiewicz’s arrest indicated that she was found out when the borough’s secretary/treasurer noticed that a cash payment she took the day before had been deleted.
The secretary/treasurer later noticed a second payment she took was deleted, too, which prompted her to examine QuickBooks more closely; she found 17 transactions totally nearly $5,000 had been deleted, the initial criminal complaint indicated. A forensic accountant who was brought in discovered around $25,000 was taken since 2014.
Mazurkiewicz will be sentenced Jan. 24. She is free on $50,000 unsecured bail.
