Austell court clerk charged with stealing $121,000

An Austell city employee accused of stealing more than $121,000 from municipal court was arrested Monday and is being held without bond.

Patricia Regina Wilcurt, a court employee since September 1999, was charged after an audit showed the money missing from court deposits since 2003. She surrendered in Carroll County, where she lives, and is being held in the jail there.

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Cobb County Sheriff's Office

Patricia Regina Wilcurt

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Cobb District Attorney Pat Head said Wilcurt is charged with theft by taking and making a false statement in writing to a government entity. Wilcurt may be charged with theft by taking by a fiduciary, Head said.

The first two charges carry maximum sentences of 10 years each. Head said theft by taking by a fiduciary carries a maximum of 15 years.

A routine audit uncovered the theft, said Mayor Joe Jerkins. Employees regularly produce two computer records of court fines and fees paid. One stays at the court, the other accompanies deposits to city hall.

The copy that accompanied the deposits was the record that was altered, Jerkins said. The two records were never compared side by side until an auditor discovered the problem

Wilcurt initially confessed to taking a smaller amount of money and cooperated with the city investigation, the mayor said. Wilcurt, who was paid about $28,000 as a clerk in municipal court, said she used the money to pay bills, Jerkins said.

She was put on administrative leave until the warrants were issued Monday afternoon. Wilcurt has stopped assisting in the investigation, Jerkins said.

The audit was triggered by the discovery in October of a $2,400 discrepancy in court records. The city crosschecked employees and found only a few who could have been stealing the money, the mayor said.

Austell Police Chief Bob Starrett questioned the employees and Wilcurt confessed last week to taking the money, the mayor said.

A system is now in place in which the city finance director and clerk of court both see both copies of the computer-generated report to crosscheck for accuracy.

“It won’t happen this way again,” Jerkins said. “It might happen another way, but it wont happen this way again.”