Woman admits fleecing more than $6K
Carolyn Ann Kleppe sentenced to probation for theft from youth soccer team
A Souderton woman who acted as the treasurer for a local youth soccer team has admitted to fleecing the organization of more than $6,600 and now faces court supervision.
Carolyn Ann Kleppe, 30, of the 200 block of Green Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to four years’ probation after she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received in connection with incidents that occurred between April and August 2018.
At the time of the theft, Kleppe was the volunteer treasurer for the U 12 Souderton Impact soccer team formed under the auspices of the Souderton Soccer Association, according to court documents.
Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Kleppe to complete 100 hours of community service and to pay $6,632.79 in restitution to the soccer association.
According to Souderton detectives, the soccer association formed a travel soccer team in April 2017 and Kleppe volunteered to be the team’s treasurer. By June 2017, one of the parent organizers of the team contacted police saying she suspected Kleppe may have inappropriately used team funds.
Kleppe set up a team bank account and the account was linked to Kleppe’s personal bank account, according to court papers. When an organizer asked Kleppe to change that arrangement Kleppe allegedly stated “it was fine the way it was,” detectives alleged in court papers.
“(The parent) also asked to see copies of bank statements and Ms. Kleppe always had some excuse as to why she could not provide them,” Souderton Detective Jospeh J. Rudner Jr. alleged in the criminal complaint. “When Ms Kleppe did present a budget to the team parents in the beginning of June 2017, in that statement the amount listed in the bank account did not match to what should have been in the account.”
The president of the soccer association also confronted Kleppe about missing funds and requested that she turn over all funds to him by July 1 to avoid the association’s board of directors prosecuting her for theft, according to court documents. However, that never occurred.
Detectives obtained a warrant to search bank records associated with the Kleppe and the soccer association. The investigation determined that more than $1,000 in payments from parents was unaccounted for, court papers say.
A review of the soccer team’s account determined 94 debit card transactions, totaling $4,297, were not authorized team expenses, according to the criminal complaint. Court documents listed debit card transactions that included numerous purchases for food and fuel at fast food restaurants and convenience stores and a $58 purchase at a New Jersey discount liquor store.
The investigation also uncovered $263 in unauthorized online banking transfers to Kleppe’s personal checking account, a $100 cash withdrawal and additional bank fees for overdrafts, according to the arrest affidavit.
“With the $1,830 in missing cash from the parents’ payments, the total loss to the U 12 Souderton Impact Soccer Team is $6,632.79,” Rudner wrote in the criminal complaint.