Novi Resident Charged With Embezzlement

NOVI, MI — Lake Orion Police Officers Thursday arrested a Novi resident and 10-year employee of the North Oakland Transportation Authority for embezzlement. Andrea Nicole Vrsek, 35, was arraigned before 52-3 District Court Magistrate Nicholas Camargo on one count of Embezzlement – Agent or Trustee, a five-year felony and/or a $10,000 fine. Vrsek was released on a $20,000 personal bond, and is scheduled to appear on May 8 for a probable cause conference before at the district court.

On February 24 of this year, NOTA Director Lynn Gustafson contacted the Lake Orion Police Department after an internal audit of fuel card usage revealed discrepancies. Fuel credit cards are assigned to a specific vehicle and authorized at the pump by a code system unique to each driver, who may only use the cards once per day. Police investigators discovered that there was another card in use, not assigned to a vehicle that had been used 313 times for unauthorized purchases during a period starting in August 2014 to February 2017. A total of $8,677 in fuel charges appeared on the card.

The investigation determined that the card was assigned to senior full-time dispatcher Andrea Vrsek, who maintained the card as a back-up, in the event a driver’s card failed. Police believe Vrsek had access to a list of all the individual driver codes, in the event they forgot their code. Off-duty driver codes were used to activate fuel purchases on the backup card at all of the unauthorized fill ups, police said in a news release.

The majority of purchases were made out of the NOTA service area. All of the off-duty drivers were cleared of the purchases, police said. Investigators were able to locate a surveillance video of an unauthorized purchase made at the Speedway gas station on S. Lapeer Road in Orion Township on January 23 of this year.

The images match the suspect and her vehicle. NOTA management and employees fully cooperated with the investigation. The organization instituted new policies and procedures to secure and monitor fuel card usage.

Started in 2001, NOTA is located on Jackson Street in Lake Orion and is a door-to-door demand response transportation organization, serving seniors age 60 and over, disabled and low income residents primarily in Orion, Oxford and Addison Townships. NOTA maintains a fleet of 20 passenger transport vehicles and 26 drivers. In 2016 NOTA logged 436,000 miles providing 33,879 rides with a total budget of $1,422,943.

NOTA is funded by a millage collected in the communities they serve. In addition, they receive local government contributions as well as state and federal grants.

Photo courtesy of the Lake Orion Police Department