Lakeland Man Stole $88K From Bank Where He Worked: Sheriff

LAKELAND, FL — A Lakeland man has been arrested and charged on suspicion of stealing from, and scheming to defraud, the bank where he worked.

The man, 43-year-old James Michael Guest, began working as an IT Manager for Magnify Credit Union in 2013. At the time, he was issued a company credit card to make business-related purchases, according to a news release from the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

According to the release, bank officials noticed discrepancies among Guest's receipts including the purchases of several gift cards purchased at Home Depot.

The bank's CEO confronted Guest and offered him the opportunity to repay the money spent on the cards, but Guest declined, authorities said.

Guest was fired, and the bank conducted an audit into the purchases. The audit found Guest's company credit card had been used to buy nearly $90,000 in gift cards in 2018 and 2019, according to the release.

The sheriff said the audit found various gift cards totaling $40,170.82 had been purchased at Home Depot stores, and another $12,769.98 was spent on gift cards at Walmart. Another $35,240.89 was spent on unauthorized purchases on Amazon.

The roster of gift cards purchased included Hotels.com, iTunes, Google, movies and entertainment, restaurants like Starbucks and Applebee’s, Uber, gas cards and Visa or MasterCard prepaid credit cards.

"While this credit union was helping people with their financial matters, their employee was taking advantage of the company credit card and helping himself to almost $90,000," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. "Cheating and stealing is wrong on so many levels,"

Guest was arrested on Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to commit grand theft between $20,000 - $100,000, a third degree felony; scheming to defraud over $50,000, a first degree felony; and fraudulent use of a credit card, a third degree felony.

He was taken to Polk County Jail before posting $17,000 bail, jail records show.

Authorities said Guest was previously arrested in 2006 and 2014 for battery-domestic violence.