Former Levy County Landfill employee Wanda Sheffield is being held on a felony grand theft charge.
Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A 57-year-old Bell woman was arrested by the Levy County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday on a charge of using her position as a county landfill scale house employee to steal cash from customer transactions.
Wanda Sheffield resigned in September of 2019 when county officials became suspicious of her activities. A lengthy criminal investigation revealed she had stolen roughly $40,000 over 10 years.
Sheffield would void scale transactions and pocket the money. She originally worked at county parks as a temporary part-time employee before transferring to the landfill, according to County Human Resource Director Jacqueline Martin.
In September of 2019 the Levy County Landfill director asked the Levy County Finance Director to take a detailed look at monies being collected at the landfill. The Finance Director alerted the sheriff’s office when he discovered a discrepancy after examining years of data from the landfill.
Multiple detectives worked with county officials and found that over a period of 10 years Sheffield had been voiding scale house transactions and converting the money to personal use.
“Detectives interviewed Sheffield prior to her arrest. She admitted that she had intentionally voided scale transactions for the purpose of taking the money for her own personal use,” the sheriff’s office said. Sheffield resigned in 2019 when staff first questioned her about voided transactions.
She was arrested at her home in Bell Wednesday on a warrant and transported to the Gilchrist County Jail where she was booked on a charge of grand theft over $20,000, a second-degree felony, and her bond was set at $25,000.
Sheffield is awaiting transfer to the Levy County Detention Facility after a first appearance before a judge.
Sheriff Bobby McCallum said it’s likely that Sheffield stole more than $40,000 but the dollar figure represents what sheriff’s office detectives could prove through their investigation.
“It probably reached much higher than that over the years. This has been an ongoing thing for quite a few years,” McCallum said. “It’s a financial crime and it takes a long time to get the records you need. It’s been a drawn-out case.”
County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said there hasn’t been as much cash money coming into the landfill scale house since the county adopted its $116 landfill assessment.
“People pay it through their tax bill instead of tipping fees,” Dean said. “There’s not nearly as much cash going through.”
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt October 5, 2020; Posted October 5, 2020
