Around the Region: Man Sentenced for Stealing From Feds, Employees Suspected of Pizza Place Pilfering and TSPLOST Funds Wanted for Toll Lanes

– Cumming Patch

A 44-year-old Cumming man was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for stealing more than $30,000 of government funds while working as a contractor for the U.S. Postal Service.

Welch, who as a contracting officer had fiscal responsibility, was working two schemes to defraud the U.S. Postal Service, according to information in court and U.S. Attorney Sally Quinlan Yates.

First, from April 2010 to December 2010, he used Government-issued credit cards, originally issued to other employees and turned over to him, and he bought more than $19,000 in luxury gifts for himself and his family. He bought gifts through online retailers that included a golf cart and boat motor.

In the second scheme, from August 2010 to December 2010, Welch created fraudulent contracts and paid money to his personal commercial repair and renovation business for services that his company did not complete.

– Carterville Patch

Various prepaid debit card transactions including large tip amounts tipped off the district manager of a  in Cartersville that employees may be responsible for an aggregate $5,000 theft.

The area manager told  he noticed a trickle of unusually high tips begin in October, and found that six employees had obtained unidentifiable debit cards, to which they charged small, fraudulent purchases and added large tips. The six, including a general manager, two managers and three employees, then retrieved cash from the store in the amount of those exorbitant tips, he added.

– East Cobb Patch

Top Cobb officials announced Tuesday they want to "significantly" redirect potential TSPLOST funding for a proposed light rail station in the Cumberland area and construct reversible toll lanes in the Interstate 75/575 corridor. 

Voters in 10 metro Atlanta counties, including Cobb, will vote next summer on the penny TSPLOST tax that would fund an estimated $6.2 billion in transportation initiatives. 

Of the nearly $1 million that would be earmarked for Cobb, $689 million is designated on the project list for the Cumberland light rail plan, supported by Lee but opposed by other Cobb elected officials. 

The Cobb alternative unveiled Tuesday calls for most of the light rail funding -- should the TSPLOST pass -- to be used for the toll lanes instead.