LEWISTON – An employee suspected of stealing roughly $17,000 from the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce was fired after she was confronted by her boss about a suspicious check.

“She told me she stole it,” said Chip Morrison, president of the local chamber, who questioned former employee Anna Bouchard about a handwritten check made out for $1,000. Bouchard had been the technology coordinator at the chamber for the past six years.

Morrison said he confronted Bouchard on Aug. 8 with the check, which bore her signature and an alleged forgery of another employee’s signature . The check, which had been cashed at Bouchard’s credit union, was out of sequence with other chamber checks and raised the concern of the chamber’s outside bookkeeper, who brought it to Morrison’s attention.

When he confronted her, Morrison said Bouchard admitted stealing the money. She was fired and escorted out of the chamber offices immediately, he said.

“It’s important to admit that it happened because of our position in the community,” Morrison said. “We are going to hold her accountable.”

Reached at her Litchfield home Friday morning, Bouchard declined comment.

Morrison met with Lewiston police investigators Wednesday to pursue criminal charges. Detective Steve MacCullum confirmed that he met with Morrison, but could not discuss specifics of his investigation. Any theft of more than $10,000 is a Class B felony, he said, and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“If the prosecution is successful, there will be restitution,” Morrison said.

After Bouchard’s dismissal, Morrison said he promptly began inspecting the books and found 40 other checks bearing Bouchard’s signature. He said less than half of them were similarly suspicious and estimated the total amount under question at $17,000. It appears the questionable checks were cashed in the past nine months, he said.

“This is so disturbing to me,” said Morrison. “We’re a small business like any other, and we have to trust each other. There’s just no excuse for this.”

But he blames himself for not discovering the irregularities sooner. The chamber conducted a capital campaign last year to raise $500,000 to fund its relocation into the newly renovated Business Service Center at KeyBank Plaza. The move involved purchases for new equipment, supplies and services that were atypical for the organization.

“I knew our numbers were a little off, but it was such an unusual year for us … still, I take full responsibility,” he said.

He said as a result, the chamber has implemented stronger controls on how it handles its money, including a personal inspection of every check returned to the organization. All its computer security systems were changed following Bouchard’s dismissal, as well.

“What we’ve learned from this is that you think you can trust everybody, but you have to put controls in place,” he said, noting that employee theft is a common problem across the country. A recent study performed by the Missouri Small Business Development Center estimates businesses lose $40 billion a year to employee theft.

“This is a big problem,” Morrison said. “But if you’re going to stop employee theft, you have to show it’s wrong.”

Morrison met with his executive board soon after the dismissal, and they agreed the best approach was a full, public disclosure. Morrison said he waited to issue a news release until he’d had a chance to meet with MacCallum, a specialist on white-collar crime, who had been on vacation.

The full chamber board was notified Friday of the situation and its approximately 1,200 members were e-mailed a memo in the afternoon. In the memo, Morrison said the chamber would be seeking full restitution and reviewing and improving all internal financial controls and procedures. A meeting with the chamber’s accountant is set for next week.

One change already implemented regards authorizing checks.

“You can bet every check going out of here now for over $500 I’m personally going to sign,” he said.