Lunch Lady Pleads Guilty to Stealing for Slots

A former East Lyme lunch lady has pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $335,000 after losing all that and more on the slots.

Beverly Howard, 53, of Westerly, R.I. was the dining services director for East Lyme schools.She took cafeteria receipts and falsified deposit logs, authorities said, taking hundreds of thousands that belonged to her employer, Chartwells Dining Services. She was fired last September.

Over six years, she lost more than $380,000 on slot machines, mostly at Foxwoods Resort Casino, authorities say. She never used credit cards because she did not want her husband to know about her gambling, and she started looking for a way to cover her losses, the Day of New London reported.

On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to larceny and accepted a plea deal in New London Superior Court. She will be sentenced on June 9 and could be sentenced to a 16-month prison term.

Howard has been attending Gamblers Anonymous, court records show.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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