New Jersey State Police detectives discovered one too many chefs in the kitchen of a Hunterdon County-based catering company.
Former bookkeeper, Kay Hayes, 54, of Lambertville, was arrested for allegedly altering the financial records, or cooking the books, of her former employer for well over a year, resulting in a loss of more than $112,000.
In May of 2015, the victim was notified by her bank that she missed a scheduled meeting about several delinquent mortgage payments for the business. When the owner took a closer look at her financial records, she discovered several suspicious transactions. As a result, she reported the incident to Kingwood Station troopers.
During the course of the 17-month investigation, detectives discovered that Kay Hayes wrote multiple checks for fabricated company expenses, wrote and cashed unauthorized checks, posed as the victim to open an unauthorized line of credit, and altered banking statements and internal records to hide her thefts.
Hayes was taken into custody Wednesday, Nov. 9th, without incident.
She was taken to Kingwood Station where she was charged with theft, forgery, uttering, and tampering with records.
She was lodged at the Somerset County Jail in lieu of $50,000 with a 10% option.