Police are searching for a woman accused of taking two paychecks -- one from a fake employee -- from the Lawrenceville company where she worked.
Summer S. Payne of Winder is accused of stealing $5,844 from Peach State Roofing by creating the fictitious employee, whose paychecks were deposited into her bank account, according to a police incident report obtained by the AJC.
The alleged scheme came to light when Mary Jane Kelly, owner of Peach State Roofing, discovered that more than $100,000 in payroll taxes had not been sent to the Internal Revenue Service. Kelly told Payne she would be terminated for the error but allowed her to remain on the job to train her successor, the report said.
It was during that time that Payne allegedly created the fictitious employee, "Pedro Perez."
"Payne provided a fake Social Security number, address, date of birth and phone number for the fake employee," the report stated. Two paychecks for "Perez" were deposited into Payne's bank account between Jan. 27 and Feb. 10, the report said.
The alleged scheme was discovered when Kelly hired an accountant to clear up the payroll tax issue.
Payne, 37, is charged with theft by deception, a felony. As of Thursday afternoon she had not been booked into the Gwinnett County jail.
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