In Toulouse, an EHPAD accountant embezzles 100,000 euros to indulge her casino gambling habit

Totally addicted to gambling, the accountant of an EHPAD management company in the Toulouse region embezzled nearly €100,000 to spend in casinos. The scam lasted over a year, and the lady in question will have a hard time finding a job afterwards… Read on.

In Colomiers, an accountant addicted to casino gambling swindles her employer

In Colomiers, a French commune in the northern department of Haute-Garonne, the accountant for a company that manages and operates several residential establishments for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) simply swindled her employer by embezzling nearly €100,000 in the space of a year.

The 64-year-old didn’t waste any time: recruited in December 2021, she set up a system of embezzlement the very next month, starting in January 2022. For a total of twelve months, the accountant – truly addicted to gambling -sent false invoices to the company she worked for, posing as a landscaper. She thus transmitted her own RIB to be paid for services that were never rendered!

After a year, the ill-intentioned but presumably ill accountant stolen exactly €95,500 from her employer. It was another accountant who discovered the deception while going through the accounts of the EHPAD management company. The company lodged a complaint against the employee in December 2022, followed by immediate dismissal.

Already known to the police, the woman accepts all the charges against her.

Following an investigation by the city police, the employer was shocked to learn that the woman was already known to the police for fraud. She was interviewed by the police on May 22. During her interview, the casino-addicted accountant admitted to all the charges against her. According to her, the embezzlement of nearly €100,000 was intended to satisfy her obsessive gambling urges. Investigators were able to ascertain that most of the sum stolen had indeed been spent in casinos.

The accountant has been laid off and will stand trial on December 06, 2023 at the Toulouse court. The French social security system was quick to use this case as a reminder that gambling addiction always goes through four stages: the winning phase, always followed by a euphoric phase, then the losing phase, which in turn leads to a phase of despair. It’s to get out of this misery that gambling addicts keep playing, even if it means losing control of what they’re doing.

Kayleigh Williams