WILLMAR — A man who pleaded guilty to four charges of felony theft for stealing from his employer has received a stay of adjudication and been ordered to pay $40,000 restitution.
Daniel John O’Malley, 30, of Willmar, pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week in Kandiyohi County District Court .
With a stay of adjudication, the convictions will not go on his criminal record if he successfully completes three years of supervised probation.
He was ordered to pay $290 in fines and court fees and $40,000 in restitution. He was ordered to have no similar offenses and to attend a gambling assessment and follow the recommendations.
Five other charges were dismissed, including two felony theft charges, one felony theft by swindle charge and two misdemeanor theft charges.
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O’Malley had been accused in 2019 of using several methods to steal from his employer Battery Wholesale Inc.
According to court records, he started working for the business in 2013 and eventually was promoted to assistant manager.
The stealing first came to light when a frequent customer noticed that his cancelled checks had been altered to be payable to O’Malley. The customer contacted BWI, which called the Willmar Police Department .
The police investigation found several methods O’Malley had used to steal thousands from his employer.
He used checks he altered to deposit an estimated $7,800 to his own checking account.
The inventory system was manipulated to sell batteries and keep the money for himself without any apparent inventory discrepancies showing up, stealing approximately $5,700.
O’Malley pocketed money from cash transactions, which was the largest part of the scheme. Computer-generated reports indicated that cash sales in 2017 and the first part of 2018 averaged $2.69 per week. After O’Malley was fired, the weekly average was about $580 a week.
Based on average cash sales, O’Malley appeared to have stolen more than $500 a week or more than $33,000 over 16 months. The money was taken by generating false return slips and occurred at the beginning and end of business hours, when O’Malley would have been alone in the store.
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