Less than two months ago, Carlo Celico buried his 33-year-old son Frank, a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy for 11 years who suddenly died from heart complications and who’d grown up in Carlo’s auto body shop, an institution on Bunnell’s State Street (U.S.1). For four years, from January 2007 to December 2010, the Celicos’ secretary and bookkeeper was Angela Wray, who is married to a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy.
On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Wray, 35, on a charge of embezzling $58,964 from Celico from June 2007 to February 2010. She was booked at the Flagler County jail on $20,000 bond.
According to the FDLE’s charging affidavit, Carlo Celico met with a state investigator at the end of July to report that he’d recently noticed discrepancies between his business’ accounting ledger and his cancelled checks. “Specifically,” the report says, “Celico stated that his ledger showed payments being made to various vendors and suppliers but the cancelled checks showed that the funds had been made payable to Wray.
Celico turned over copies of his business account ledger and the checks suspected of representing stolen funds, as well as cancelled checks from Celico’s bank.
After the checks were examined, investigators found that the deposited checks were endorsed by Wray with an account number written under the endorsement. Other checks had been cashed at SunTrust Bank, Walmart and Publix, and various checks were made payable to GMAC–the financing company–, Chase Auto Finance and Capitol One.
Wrays’ accounts at the banks and financing companies were all examined through subpoena, and were found to belong to Wray. She had used Celico’s business checking account to make deposits into her personal checking account, cashed checks for personal use at various locations, and used the money to make personal payments on bills through the financing institutions.
The total amount of individual thefts, the charging papers read, came to 127 instances.
Celico declined to comment on the matter Thursday. Wray’s husband, Chris Wray, makes $35,500 at the sheriff’s office. Wray herself is listed as unemployed in the booking documents at the jail.
Michael says
GREED is GOOD ! This is what happens when you use Wall Street and Politicians as your role models.
[email protected] says
flagler live , this was a very short article. will you follow up on this and keep the public updated ?
Jojo says
This is a very sad story with what the Celico family has been through recently, the wife of a Sheriff arrested and an epidemic of woman embezzling funds more and more in this country. This phenomenon begun as more and more woman have entered the working environment and some woman, for the first time, have ready access, the means and criminal motive to monetary funds. Perhaps this sad state of affairs should produce a call for white papers and study of why although numerous ones have been written. The Uniform Crime Reports (FBI) has shown that woman are the fastest growing segment committing these crimes. Too often it is viewed as a victimless crime and the victim refusing to press charges or the company too embarrassed to report it. There are numerous woman in this County who have walked away giving excuses for their actions to police, employers, lack of evidence, failure to prosecute, and, not to mention, the state of our current economy. What do we do???
TONY says
I KNOW A GOOD DIVORCE LAWYER!!
[email protected] says
maybe if law enforcement was paid a descent salary there would be no temptation.1988 i was making 32,000. that was almost 24 years ago these guys deserve more money here for all the crap i read that they go through. i do not have a problem paying more taxes for law enforcement.
Anonymous says
Everyone wants and needs higher pay…no excuse….sorry wsh.
There are others out there that make less than law enforcement, and who don’t have the benefits law enforcement has and their spouses aren’t robbing their employers blind. There is no excuse for this.
palmcoaster says
What was she thinking…?
roco says
wsh—– Where do you get off saying because policemen are under paid is a license to steal. If you were in law enforcement apparently you were paid what you were worth..
Layla says
She wasn’t…
Riley says
Like many before her, she will get a fine, 10 years probation, community service and restitution of the money stolen. No jail time.
Riley says
@wsh
You didn’t make 32k in 1988 in law enforcement as a deputy, especially in Florida.
PJ says
People have no respect!!
Thinkaboutit says
It’s not usually about greed, this stealing from employer thing. There’s almost always a common denominator in situations like this, the money the person makes is going for something else and none is left to pay the bills, panic sets in, and this is what they do. Husband may or may not know.
[email protected] says
you are right riley it was not in florida it was in new york
The Truth says
Not being paid enough is no reason for someone to do this to their employer. There are many who aren’t paid enough but they live honest lives and make due with what they have. I hope this young lady gets what she deserves and pays back every last cent.
meh says
The comment about paying the fuzz more money so they’d stop stealing is hilarious. I can honestly say that mentality circulates throughout our police department, which is probably what makes them so dishonest and crooked in the first place, buts it’s ok, they can do whatever they want and get away with it, as usual.
Next thing you know they’ll be saying the husband had no idea this was going on, the fact that the wife had an extra 60k stuffed under her mattress seemed reasonable and legit. Wonder if they claimed all this extra income on taxes.. hrmmm
Haw Creek Girl says
Honestly, does she need jail time? Logically, if we put her in jail then we, the taxpayer, will pay to incarcerate her for whatever time period they determine to be appropriate. We then pay to house, feed, and medically care for her for that time period. If they give her probation, she pays the State for supervision and if they order her to pay restituion then Mr Celico will get his $ back. Sometimes we are conditioned to think, throw the bad guy(in this case, girl) in jail. In the case, surely probation, restitution and some sort of psychiatric evaluation and treatment. There is no way you can be thinking in a rational manner and be psychologically healthy and steal $60,000 from someone….any person in their right mind would KNOW they were going to be found out. And lastly, to Jojo….what do we do? We pray for the Wrays, thier family and thier marriage and thier finances….because honestly and truly no matter what crime statistics you study ….there is only one thing that seperates our sin from the sins of those who are studied criminals…that’s the grace and mercy of God our Father.
Bob says
This lady is a crook. Give her 3 months to pay it back. Throw the book at her. Who would hire her, she might as well be in jail so that she is not stealing from someonelse.
suewho1010 says
No matter how tough times are stealing is not acceptable. Especially with a husband in Law enforcement.. I hope Celico Auto does not get a bad taste in their mouth from Mrs Wray’s greed and become afraid to hire a honest unpstanding citizen to fill her position.
I’ve been unemployed for over a year , I would give my left arm for a job and never have I ever taken something that does not belong to me. And I have worked with millions of dollars passsing thru my hands for many years. And my books were always balanceright down to the penny.
Sorry this has happen to the Celico Auto family
BE HONEST says
Well people sad to say that this Lady deserves to be thrown the book. Doesn’t seem like it’s her first offense for embezzling and by this time her hubby should know her and all the signs. I wouldn’t be surprised if he denies not knowing but everyone knows what your bills are and how much you should have in your account every month if theirs a few dollars you should question yourself… What didn’t get paid. I have been to that shop it’s not a big place and everyone there seems like family… How could she have done this to those poor people that are dealing with the death of their son and now they have to deal with this .
Bella says
Criminals have no remorse for the people they victimize. She took advantage of a truely nice person and with every thing going on he became even more vulnerable. Imagine having to continue to pay her a paycheck and he knew she as robing him until they could arrest her. I feel sorry for her husband if he did not know then again not all cops are above board either especially if there are addictions involved. Prayers go out to the Celico family.
Dee says
I noticed that it said this was happening between 2007 – 2010. Perhaps she had remorse and feared coming forward. If so, then jail would not be appropriate, being able to make restitution would. This is a very sad situation. Her husband must be mortified. Let us use our jails for more dangerous individuals and find other solutions for these situations.