CORONA: Church bookkeeper gets 3 years for embezzlement in California

A Corona woman has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from her church and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Gigi Lynnette Wellott, 48, pleaded guilty Tuesday, July 30, to three counts of grand theft from 2006 to 2010 when she was treasurer for the Corona United Methodist Church. She was ordered to pay back $200,991 in restitution to the church.
The church first reported Wellott to Corona police in September 2010. She turned herself into police in December 2011 and was free on bail until Tuesday.
Wellott reported to the church finance committee and was responsible for approving and paying church bills. She controlled a checkbook for the church, which needed two signatures, according to court records. She was a part-time employee receiving an annual salary of $9,269.
Police said she obtained the second signatures by claiming the checks were for official church business.
The church ordered an audit of financial records in April 2010 after a shortfall in church finances and missing funds. At the time, Wellott was not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to a sworn affidavit in support of an arrest warrant.
The audit showed several payments to Wellott’s company, Aarow Business Consultants. When Wellott was questioned by the audit committee, the case was turned over to Corona police.
Search warrants on Wellott’s personal and business bank accounts showed multiple thefts from the church bank account, according to the affidavit. Police said Wellott paid her electric bill with church funds over four years, totaling $11,977.
Financial records also showed Wellott wrote more than 200 illegal checks from the church’s account from 2003 to 2010 to herself and her business, totaling $222,752.
She also used church funds to buy AT&T check cards, totaling nearly $7,000.
In addition to the three felony charges, she pleaded to guilty two enhancements of a white collar crime exceeding $100,000 and destruction of property.