A 30-year-old former manager at the Rialto Theater in Spanish Springs is suspected of embezzling $26,135.
The investigation began in December when theater management suspected that $5,000 was missing. That internal investigation ended with the termination of Matthew Normand Audet of Ocala. Further investigation revealed that more than $26,000 was missing and Lady Lake police were called in.
Audet is suspected of taking money from the theater from February to December.
Theater management said Audet would wait for theater managers to go home for the night and he would process fraudulent refunds through an upstairs computer which would print out fraudulent refund tickets to the box office. Audet would then go down to the box office and take the refund tickets that he had printed out which were supposed to be attached to paperwork and he would dispose of the tickets. Audet would pocket the cash in the amount of false refunds he had created at the end of shifts, thus the amount deposited appeared to be correct. Audet would finish up the night and process and submit the final drawer cash and paperwork for the day, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
A warrant was prepared for Audet’s arrest and he was taken into custody by Marion County sheriff’s deputies.
It was discovered that Audet was already on supervisor probation in Maine.
He was being held on $15,000 bond at the Marion County Jail.
