Former employee jailed for theft, forgery

PALMER -- A former bookkeeper for Valley Car Rental has been charged with second-degree theft and third-degree forgery against the company.

Marcia Lynn Parrish was arrested Tuesday, just eight hours before she was to leave Anchorage on a plane bound for Kansas City, Mo. Wasilla police were tipped off to her travel plans by Thomas Hannam, owner of the company where the woman worked from October 2002 until April under the last name of Eveleigh.

Parrish was arrested in her Wasilla apartment after initially telling Wasilla police officer Scott Vukich her name was Melanie Evans. She was lodged at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $2,500 bail.

Second-degree theft is a class C felony carrying a possible penalty of five years in prison and $50,000 fine. Charging documents indicate Parrish used company checks to pay her bills and to give herself an unauthorized $1,000 bonus.

Charging documents refer to a $449.23 check written to Enstar and entered on company books as being for rental car repair expenses. Another check for $300 to Matanuska Electric Association was entered in company books as being for payroll expenses.

Hannam said during an interview that the woman wrote other checks, but he couldn't remember how many. Hannam told Wasilla police on July 9 that she had stolen from his business.

The theft charge covers Parrish's alleged activities from Dec. 19, 2002, to March 10. Charging documents say she committed theft of property or services worth between $500 and $25,000.

In his report, officer Vukich said Hannam told him Eveleigh called Matanuska Towing and Recovery to tow her car and charged it to the company without authorization.

Also, the report said a sale agreement shows that Valley Car Rental was to pay for insurance on a car sold to Melanie Evans on Oct. 25, 2002. "The sales agreement shows Hannam's signature but Hannam told me that he did not sign this document and he believed Eveleigh forged his signature," Vukich wrote in his report.

In addition to theft and forgery, Parrish was charged with giving false information to a police officer. She was arraigned Wednesday in Palmer District Court.