The person accused of the thefts from four clients of the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities has not been charged, and the investigation is ongoing, Middletown police said.
Regardless of the outcome, Smith said Abilities First is looking at ways to make its “internal process stronger.”
The four clients reported an Abilities First employee contacted their payee First Core and requested additional money from each of their Social Security accounts, according to a Middletown police report.
The employee, according to the report, allegedly kept the withdrawn money. The four clients said the unaccounted $5,200 — $200, $300, $1,500 and $3,200 — was taken after Jan. 1, 2010.
The former employee’s Hamilton-based attorney, Muhammad Hamidullah, said the investigation was in its initial stages. He declined to comment further.
Lynn Nichols, president of First Core, the largest payee company in Ohio, said the company would reimburse the clients for any stolen funds.
Nichols said the checks, made payable to the clients, were cashed at Chase bank by the former Abilities First employee. Nichols said her agency thought they were mailing the checks to the agency’s post office box, but it belonged to the former employee.
She called it “a huge investigation” that includes First Core, Abilities First, Butler County Board of DD, the Middletown Division of Police and the Social Security Administration.
She said representatives from all the agencies will meet at 2 p.m. today in Middletown.
Abilities First, based in Middletown, provides services for children and adults with disabilities, developmental delays and other special needs in an eight-county region.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com
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