A pastor's wife in Florida has been accused of stealing thousands from the church by ordering unauthorized Amazon packages.
The Citrus County Sheriff's Office stated deputies first received a complaint about Nancy Mitchell Bertine, on Feb. 5 from a fellow employee of Gulf to Lake Baptist Church, located in Crystal River.
According to the complaint, the church's financial department discovered that numerous fraudulent transactions had been made on their Amazon account by Bertine.
The finance department said that when they further investigated the incident, they discovered the account belonging to Bertine was open and readily accessible on the church's desktop computer.
The account showed records of online purchases made by the suspect, along with orders placed and shipped to Bertine, totaling around $37,000 at the time of the report.
Deputies stated the fellow employee was able to access records of Amazon purchases dating back to 2020. They then issued a subpoena to request the rest of the records.
The Amazon account in question fell under the company credit card assigned to the church and was originally set up under the director of finance. A further investigation revealed that pastors, associate pastors and other credible staff members, including Bertine, were issued company cards associated with the church's bank account.
Bertine's husband, the church's pastor, said that once the church found out they were getting a divorce, Bertine left the church and no longer had employment with Gulf to Lake Baptist Church, according to the sheriff's office.
Although Bertine was an authorized user of the account, deputies said it's meant to be used for the church's functions, needs, necessities, or other board member-approved purchases.
Bertine's purchases were considered outside of the scope, needs and necessities of the church and were not approved by the board members. According to the report, they included cosmetics, women's undergarments and pet food.
Deputies said Bertine was arrested. She faces charges of scheme to defraud $50,000 or more and grand theft.
This story was originally published by Rebekah Nelson with the Scripps News Group in Tampa.
