A longtime employee at Wegmans has pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company.
That’s according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which says that 47-year-old Alicia Torres of Webster manipulated a system used to fill customers’ prescriptions to fraudulently process approximately 350 credit card refund requests in customers’ names with fictitious amounts.
Prosecutors say that the fraudulent refund amounts were based on what Torres saw customers receiving in previous transactions. They say she tricked the pharmacist on duty to sign off, and authorize the fraudulent refund requests.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that once the refund requests were approved, Torres paid the refund amounts to herself by swiping her bank debit card in Wegmans’ point-of-sale system.
Officials say that between 2014 and February 2023, Torres received about $568,000 in fraudulent refunds. And, authorities also say that between 2020 and February 2023, Torres fraudulently used Wegmans gift cards to steal nearly $11,000 from Wegmans.
Torres had been employed at Wegmans for approximately 27 years.
Torres pleaded guilty to wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
