Police: Woman stole $247G from Lynn firm

LYNN – A former Lynn woman is out on $5,000 bail following her arraignment on charges that she embezzled more than $247,000 from the local real estate firm where she worked as a payroll clerk.Cheryl Harvey, 51, of 1 Summit Road, Billerica, faces a variety of charges – including larceny, embezzlement over $250, check forgery, false entries to corporate books with intent to defraud and uttering forged checks – after she allegedly forged and then cashed 363 checks totaling $247,713 from her employer Century 21 Hughes Realty between July 2008 and this May, according to police reports.Harvey, formerly of Lynn, posted $5,000 cash bail a few hours after turning herself in to Lynn Police on Monday morning, court records reveal.”Everybody’s so disappointed with somebody they were friends with, but we’ve got a strong office and great people,”said David Hughes, owner of Century 21 Hughes Realty, which employed Harvey for three years. “In 40 years of business, nothing like this has ever happened to me.”Phone numbers listed as belonging to Harvey were disconnected. Harvey’s attorney, Chris Holland of Haverhill, said in an e-mail message that he and his client “will not be making any comment at this time.”Harvey worked in the real estate office department that manages foreclosed properties, according to police reports filed in Lynn District Court.The real estate firm maintains the properties for the title holders by paying the properties’ utility bills and other costs and then submitting the bills to the title holder for reimbursement.In exchange for maintaining the properties, the real estate firm receives the listing when the property is put on the market and charges the commission when the property is sold, according to police reports.Harvey’s duties were to issue the checks to pay these bills – sending completed checks to management to sign – and then bill the property owners for reimbursement and record those reimbursements once submitted to Century 21 Hughes, according to the police report.But while the real estate company was undergoing an IRS audit in May 2011, Hughes uncovered several irregularities in these accounts, according to the police report.First, Harvey avoided turning over statements for the accounts several times, and when Hughes went to look for the statements himself, he didn’t find any, according to the police report.”He did discover numerous collection statements for bills for over 100 properties (that) had not been paid over a two-year period,” Police Capt. Mark O’Toole states in the police report. “Further, Mr. Hughes discovered that the financial institutions involved had been billed for these utility services and had reimbursed Hughes Realty in accordance with the billing.”The company’s check-writing program revealed further irregularities.”(Hughes) states that he then discovered numerous entries where checks would be coded to a utility or vendor, would then be changed to the name Cheryl Harvey and printed, and then changed back to reflect payment to the utility or vendor,” according to O’Toole’s report. “In sum, Harvey was ?cooking the books’ by issuing checks to herself, forging Mr. Hughes’ name, and then cashing the checks.”Copies of 363 fraudulent checks between July 2008 to May 16 issued to and cashed by Harvey and to a person Hughes identified as her former boyfriend total $247,713, according to the report.Hughes said that the police consider the investigation ongoing, and that others, outside of the real estate company, may be investigated in connection with the alleged embezzlement. Harvey will next appear in court on Nov. 4, according to court documents.However, Hughes said that Harvey’s arrest marked “the beginning of the end” of the alleged embezzlement episode.”Up until this point, everybody here was wondering what was going to happen and I couldn’t really say anything to them,” Hughes said. “It was a challenge working through that, but we’ve got a good team here and just plugged along ? at one point,