A former employee of the Wayne County Tax Claim Bureau has been charged with the theft of over $11,000 in tax money. A criminal complaint was filed on October 3 against former employee Jeannie Brooks of Prompton, alleging several crimes of theft and forgery at the tax claim bureau office.

Wayne County District Attorney Detective Peter Hower filed the charges, claiming that while Brooks was employed at the office she stole money at various times during 2012 when it was received from Wayne County residents paying their taxes.

A discrepancy was discovered last summer by the director of the department. The amount of money received by the bureau did not match the amount of money that was deposited in its account.

This led to further investigation and produced numerous discrepancies in the office transactions. All of the transactions in question were received by Brooks.

It is charged that Brooks fraudulently received over $11,000. She was arraigned by Magistrate Ted Mukulak and bail was set at $50,000.

A statement from the county commissioners said: “The Wayne County Commissioners’ office was made aware of several accounting inconsistencies in the tax claim office. Per further internal investigation, the identified transactions that showed questionable posting were presented to the Wayne County District Attorney’s office for further investigation.

The commissioners’ office and the tax claim bureau provided assistance to the DA’s office during the investigation as requested. The employee under investigation is not currently employed by Wayne County. No further comments will be issued due to the pending investigation.”