Police: Real estate agent accused of stealing $41K

Carolyn Ann Hamm told her boss she’d take on extra office duties at the Orlando real estate business to help supplement the money she was making as an agent. She agreed to receive an extra $1,200 a month to answer phones, pay company bills, process agent transactions and order office supplies, an arrest report states.

But police say bank records revealed that for a little more than a year, Hamm took much more than what she was owed — $41,743.33 more, to be exact.

Hamm, 48, of Orlando, was arrested Thursday on felony charges of grand theft and fraudulent use of personal identification, court records show. She was being held in the Orange County Jail on $415,000 bail.

Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation records show Hamm has held an active broker sales license in the state since 2003. A website for a RE/MAX agency in St. Cloud lists her as a manager.

Orlando police started investigating possible embezzlement by Hamm in March 2016, after the owner of RE/MAX Vantage in the Lake Nona area reported the missing money.

The owner said Hamm helped with the accounting and office duties from April 2014 to May 2015, when the office hired a new receptionist to take over, the arrest report states. The receptionist started training with Hamm and noticed she was writing checks to herself for more than her agreed salary, the report states.

The new employee confronted her about it, the owner told police. A short time later, Hamm quit without notice, according to the report.

Police said the office hired a forensic accountant and spent months investigating before turning over a file of all the unauthorized transactions, including Amazon receipts for an eyelash curler, mascara, a pizza cooking kit, cellphone cases and panties charged to a company credit card.

Records showed the card also was used to pay electric bills at Hamm’s home, according to the report.