GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A city of Gainesville employee who made more than $91,000 in fraudulent purchases with city credit cards in the last year and a half has been arrested, according to the Gainesville Police Department.
Natwaina Clark, 33, who was employed as a staff assistant for the cultural affairs manager and the parks manager in Gainesville, now faces charges of grand theft and scheme to defraud, police said.
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According to her arrest report, Clark was hired in August 2015 and was given access to city credit cards to make business purchases.
But police said Cultural Affairs Manager Russell Etling and Parks Manager John Weber discovered during a recent audit that their departments were over budget.
That's when they realized Clark had submitted receipts and department paperwork for unapproved credit card purchases, police said.
Their investigation showed that from November 2015 to March 13 of this year, Clark made 169 unapproved purchases totaling more than $91,598, according to the report.
Clark was arrested Tuesday afternoon and is being held on $20,000 bond.
GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said that after a search warrant was served at Clark's home Wednesday, it appears a large part of the fraudulent charges were for consumer electronics. He said investigators found that Clark purchased a large amount of gift cards and made payments to other accounts, so tracking her individual purchases will take detectives some time.
Gainesville city spokesman Bob Woods said Clark's employment was terminated on March 22 for violations of the city's code of conduct policy regarding theft, and city staff are conducting an internal administrative investigation.
“The city manager's office is aware and monitoring events regarding the arrest and charges filed against Ms. Clark,” Woods said. “The city will use every tool at its disposal to uncover the full extent of any theft, how it may have occurred and what we can do to prevent it from happening again.”