Coast woman admits taking $303,000 from Biloxi company to feed her shopping compulsion
A Coast woman fed her shopping compulsion by embezzling $303,000 from her employer, a Biloxi construction company, she admitted Tuesday in Circuit Court.
Elizabeth Rose “Beth” O’Neil, 36, said she stole $1,400 to $1,600 a week from 2012-17 while working as a bookkeeper for J.O. Collins Contractor Inc. She disguised the payments as business expenses but funneled the money into her personal account.
Her theft was discovered through a company audit.
She admitted to the company’s owner what she had done, then asked if she could keep her job, her attorney, Don Rafferty, told Judge Larry Bourgeois.
“Ma’am,” Bourgeois said, raising his voice, “you had the audacity to take $300,000 from this man and then ask him if you could keep your job?”
O’Neil just looked at the judge without answering.
Bourgeois set her sentencing for March 16 in his Gulfport courtroom. The Collinses attended the plea hearing, held in Biloxi.
O’Neil faces up to 20 years in prison, but the District Attorney’s Office is recommending that she serve five years under house arrest with approval from the victims, who want repayment.
O’Neil is working in Alabama, Rafferty said, and can pay $300 a month restitution. She also sold family land and agreed to immediately pay $115,000 in restitution with the proceeds.
Still, Bourgeois wondered, “How is this victim going to be made whole with you paying $300 a month?”
Rafferty said a shopping compulsion, including online purchases, led his client to take the money.
“There is nothing to say other than we are sorry,” he said.
