Posted 8/9/22

A former customer service representative for the Pulaski Electric System has been indicted on theft charges after allegedly taking almost $40,000 from the utility from March 2019 until she was fired in February 2020.

Investigators state that Jenna Coleman misappropriated $37,845.97 from the electric utility.

Coleman collected cash payments from customers, entered the payments into the accounting system, and then reversed those same payments, which allowed her to take the cash for her personal use.

Coleman allegedly used a lapping scheme to replace the money in customers’ accounts with collections she received on subsequent days. During the course of her misappropriation, she made unauthorized adjustments to 188 customer accounts.

Coleman’s scheme was discovered by another customer service representative in February 2020. At that time, there were 10 customer accounts that had not been repaid totaling $1,715.21. PES deducted this amount from Coleman’s final paycheck and reported the misappropriation to the Comptroller’s Office.   

The Giles County Grand Jury indicted Coleman on one count of theft over $10,000, one count of computer crimes over $10,000 and one count of false entries in governmental records.