Reality ‘check’
A woman swiped $500,000 in a check scam from a fancy Midtown bistro — and claimed she needed the dough to pay for her daughter’s education, authorities said yesterday.
Marcia Howell, 34, of The Bronx, committed the fraud right under the noses of her bosses over a four-year period at Rue 57 at West 57th Street and Sixth Avenue, court records show.
From April 6, 2007, to Aug. 31 of this year, Howell swiped checks belonging to the restaurant and issued them to her daughter, her ex-boyfriend and herself under the alias “Marcia Hughes,” according to court documents.
The funds were withdrawn from the eatery’s bank account, but no one seemed to notice until recently, when a restaurant official reviewed account records, according to the documents.
Detectives quickly zeroed in on Howell, whose job gave her access to the checks, and linked her to the crimes.
Howell was arrested Tuesday and charged with grand larceny, identity theft and forgery.
As detectives grilled her, Howell confessed to writing a check to herself and became visibly upset when she was asked about the other checks, court records said.
At that point, she allegedly told detectives that “she could not pay the money back, and had taken it in order to pay for the education of her daughter.”
Howell was being held on $75,000 bond on Rikers Island after her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Her attorney, Michael Dreishpoon, declined to comment.
A manager at Rue 57 referred inquiries to a corporate office.
Calls there were not answered.
