A former accounting clerk took money from clients' activity accounts

A former accounting clerk at the Glenwood Resource Center took money from clients' activity accounts to cover her gambling losses and help a daughter who was going through a divorce, according to a state audit released Monday.

The audit, which covers the period from Jan. 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, shows Carol Tibben made 17 unauthorized withdrawals from clients' activity accounts totaling nearly $3,400. The audit indicates Tibben repaid $2,500 by the time she resigned in June 2010. A telephone call placed to a listing for a Carol Tibben in Glenwood went unanswered Monday.

Clients at the center, which provides services to the disabled, receive money from a variety of sources, which is then placed into a bank account for each client. Once a request for cash was received and approved, Tibben would write a check for cash from the account and a courier would retrieve the money from the bank and return it to Tibben, the audit said.

"According to her statement, she kept the cash and used it for personal reasons," the audit said. "If she was unable to repay the cash, she would take the cash from another activity envelop and use it to replace the cash."

The audit said that Tibben indicated she "began to gamble more and was unable to repay the cash." She also said she started borrowing funds to help her daughter through a divorce, the audit said.

Cash could be requested up to 30 days in advance giving Tibben "the opportunity to use the cash from any activity which was not picked up immediately for her personal use," the audit said.

The audit identified 477 voided withdrawal forms totaling more than $45,000 for the period looked at during the investigation and the report suggested that Tibben had access to the money and could have used it for personal reasons and replaced before the activity or replaced it with funds from another client's account until she could catch up.