68-year-old Gambling Addict to Prison

Etowah County woman with gambling addiction sentenced to prison in $933,000 theft from former employer

By Kent Faulk | The Birmingham News on April 02, 2013


BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A 68-year-old Etowah County woman, with a gambling addiction, was sentenced Monday to nearly five years in federal prison for her guilty plea to stealing $933,000 from her former employer, court records show.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynwood Smith sentenced Peggy Cochran McGlaughn during a hearing in Huntsville on Monday to 33 months for bank fraud and 24 months for identity theft. The sentences are to run consecutive.

Smith also ordered her to pay restitution of $933,079, plus interest, and once she completes her prison sentence to serve five years of supervised probation, according to court records. She is to report to prison June 3.

"Mrs. McGlaughn accepts her fate for the wrong she committed, but I feel that 57 months is more than is necessary to accomplish the purposes of sentencing in light of her age and health," her attorney, Tommy Spina, said today. "She is very remorseful for the harm caused to her former employers who trusted her."

In July 2011, McGlaughn pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing the money from Bob Roberts & Co., a family-owned construction company in Gadsden. She worked for the company as bookkeeper and office manager for 24 years.

Spina had argued for a lesser sentence in a memorandum to the judge. That memo argued that her age and lack of criminal history should factor into her sentencing. Nearly a dozen family members and friends also submitted letters requesting leniency.

Spina's memorandum also stated McGlaughn suffers from a wide range of ailments, takes 19 medications and is treated by several doctors.

The 57-month sentence is what Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Borton had asked for in the case.
Court records show that between Oct. 28, 2003, and Feb. 23, 2010 McGlaughn obtained signatures from the company's president or his parents on more than 100 blank checks, which she claimed she was using to conduct company business.

McGlaughn then filled in the check, made the checks out to another employee whose endorsement she forged without his knowledge, and cashed the checks at a local bank.

In February 2010, the company submitted to a random state audit, which revealed discrepancies in its finances.

Borton had stated in his sentencing memorandum that the 57 months was deserved.

When confronted by the company's president, McGlaughn "threatened to report (the company) to OSHA and the IRS if (the president) didn't agree to accept $55,000 from her in exchange for (him) signing a release."


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