TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A former student housing manager has been arrested after he was found to have stolen more than $10,000 from tenants.
Jeffrey Jerrett, 52, was arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department on May 3.
On Oct. 23, 2017, TPD responded to Student Housing Solutions (SHS) leasing office on West Pensacola Street in response to an employee theft involving one of their employees, Jerrett.
Jerrett, was the company's Scattered Site Property Manager in charge of townhome and single family rental units.
On June 13, 2017, a tenant was seeking the return of one of her security deposits because she was moving.
The police report states, the tenant as well as her roommates had given Jerrett three $425 money orders as a security deposit.
When asked about the money orders by an employee, Jerrett indicated he didn't remember receiving them from the tenants.
The CEO of the company ultimately paid the tenant's security deposit, totaling $1,275 since she didn't know what happened to the money.
According to the police report, she then requested and received copies of the money orders from Western Union, which had Jerrett's name written on the payee line on all three money orders, and his signature on the back, endorsing the money order.
On Nov. 2, 2017, Western Union advised SHS the money orders were deposited into Suntrust Bank and during SHS's review of accounts, additional payments were found to be missing from tenant accounts.
Believing the fraud happened over an extended amount of time, a subpoena was prepared for Suntrust to get account information, statements, and copies of any and all money orders deposited into the account from Oct. 2016 to Oct. 2017.
Suntrust provided a subpoena return, indicating the account holder was Jerrett.
The police report states the bank statements showed the account linked to direct deposit payroll payments for Jerrett from SHS.
In total $10,477 worth of money orders intended for payment to SHS were deposited into Jerrett's personal Suntrust Bank account.
In April, officers made multiple efforts to get into contact with Jerrett but were unsuccessful.
TPD says in total, there were 20 stolen money orders valued at $300 or more, four stolen money orders valued at $100 or more, and two stolen money orders valued under $100.
TPD states all of the money orders were fraudulently changed with Jerrett adding his name and/or by changing the addresses by one number or letter.
Based on the evidence, Jarrett was charged with 20 counts of grand theft, four counts of petit theft over $100, two counts of petit theft under $100, and one count of organized scheme to defraud.
