Custer woman to pay nearly $17,000 for attempted embezzlement.

Allison Swan, left, with defense attorney Jennifer Kuiper-Weise.

Custer woman to pay nearly $17,000 for attempted embezzlement.

#MasonCountyCrime.

By Allison Scarbrough. Editor.

LUDINGTON — A 35-year-old Custer Township woman was ordered to pay $16,878.63 in restitution for a conviction of attempted embezzlement in 51st Circuit Court Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Allison Shirley Swan, 1005 N. Custer Road, pleaded “no contest” last December for attempting to embezzle money from her employer, Fun-N-Sun RV, 66 N. Dennis Road, Amber Township, where she was employed as a bookkeeper.

A no contest plea is a plea in which the facts supporting the crime’s elements come from a source other than the defendant’s own words in court, generally from police investigation reports, witness statements, photographs, etc. The plea is used when the defendant cannot recall her criminal actions or her verbal plea from a traditional plea would be used in a potential civil law suit. Regardless, the defendant is treated by a sentencing judge the same as if she was convicted via a guilty plea or trial verdict.

Swan did not receive any up front jail time for a six-month discretionary jail term, because she agreed to immediately pay back $6,000 of the restitution, said Mason County Assistant Prosecutor Glenn Jackson III. “She has provided a $6,000 cashier’s check to be turned in to the court today.”

Attempted embezzlement $1,000-$20,000 carries a two-and-a-half year maximum, the assistant prosecutor said.

One count of embezzlement and one count of using a computer to commit a crime were dismissed when Swan pleaded to the added charge.

Embezzlement is punishable by up to five years in prison, and the computer crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Swan was also sentenced to three years probation.

The attempted embezzlement, which involved Swan making out commission checks to herself, occurred from May through October of 2016.

The attempted embezzlement is Swan’s first felony conviction, said Judge Susan K. Sniegowski. Sentencing guidelines in the case are 0-6 months.

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