Mother and daughter accused of taking $390,000 from Aberdeen hospital, doctors group

A mother and daughter were arrested Friday in Aberdeen on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree theft after allegedly stealing $390,000 from Grays Harbor Community Hospital and a physicians group, according to Aberdeen police.

The physicians group is called Grays Harbor Physicians Services.

The mother, 64, and her daughter, 45, are former employees of the hospital.

According to police:

Bank records, obtained through search warrants, show the thefts started in September 2015 and continued through April 2017. The daughter, a former payroll controller for the hospital, was at that point confronted by staff about not paying the hospital’s taxes.

A forensic audit in July showed the money had been taken through direct deposit and fraudulently written checks.

The daughter later told police that she spent the money on everyday things and bought nothing extravagant. She also used some of the money to cover funeral expenses for her father and uncle.

This month Grays Harbor Community Hospital also announced that it was cutting 21 jobs in an effort to improve billing services. Those jobs have been outsourced to a Utah-based company.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Mother and daughter accused of taking $390,000 from Aberdeen hospital, doctors group."