Woman sentenced for embezzling over $60,000 from local doctor’s office
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IDAHO FALLS — A 40-year-old woman has been sentenced for embezzling over $60,000 from a local doctor’s office.
Shasta Hansen was sentenced on Dec. 18 by Magistrate Judge Wiley Dennert to two years of supervised probation. She is also required to pay restitution and court fees of $63,457.50.
According to court documents, Hansen has already paid back $31,300.
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She must also spend 29 days in a local jail, which began on Jan. 3.
Hansen was initially charged with felony grand theft. She later entered a plea agreement in which she agreed to plead guilty to an amended charge of misdemeanor petit theft and pay back $63,000 in restitution to Freeman Plastic Surgery in Idaho Falls.
Background
According to court documents, in early 2022, a doctor from Freeman Plastic Surgery reported a grand theft involving Hansen, a former employee. He alleged that over the previous three years, Hansen stole over $60,000.
One of the office managers became aware of the situation while looking over the previous day’s payment records and she noticed Hansen’s last patient’s payment wasn’t recorded.
The office manager contacted the patient and asked about her treatments and payment details.
The patient said she had paid Hansen $1,500 in cash. The office manager checked the cash drawer, and none of the money was inside.
The manager contacted Hansen, who said she had taken $600 in cash from the patient and that she may have it with her or it may be in her desk.
The officer manager searched Hansen’s desk and did not locate any money, invoice, or receipt.
When Hansen returned to the office, she began going through her desk drawers and “pretended” to remove $600 cash from the desk. The office manager said she saw Hansen take the cash out of her purse.
After reporting the incident, the doctor and office manager confronted Hansen about the funds and she admitted to taking money on four or five occasions. She apologized and agreed to provide them with a list of patients she had stolen money from.
Hansen stated she had a lot of “personal things going on” and said she stole the money because she “wasn’t being paid her commissions.” She later returned $900 and was terminated from the company.
During the investigation, police say a patient bought a treatment package through Hansen. A receipt showed the package was paid for through an online Square account.
Hansen was confronted about the Square account and admitted to having charged patients’ credit cards using her personal Square account. She provided five duplicate receipts detailing payments totaling $3,415.
A company iPad given to Hansen during her employment showed dozens of payments made to her personal Square account.
Correction: Court systems incorrectly stated that Hansen was sentenced to serve 9 days in jail. The real term is 29 days. This has been corrected in the article.