The former head teller for the $281 million Essential Federal Credit Union in Plaquemine, La. was sentenced last week to 10 months in prison for stealing $508,000 from her teller drawer over four years.

U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson in Baton Rouge also ordered Whittney M. Lathan on Dec. 3 to pay $508,182 and forfeit $309,350 cash, which she deposited in the nearby $539 million Campus Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge after stealing the money from Essential, according to court documents.

Lathan pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in September after she was charged with the felony offense in July.

She began stealing cash in January 2009, but the theft was not uncovered until July 2013 when the credit union's accounting staff examined general ledger accounts to reconcile accounts. During this process, the accounting staff identified a debit in the credit union's suspense general ledger for $567,963, according to court documents.

Accounting staff members also discovered Lathan created the debit to the general ledger by issuing and applying seven cashier's checks to the general ledger negative check balance in March 2013. While the checks totaled $567,963 and resulted in the elimination of the huge negative check balance Lathan carried as a teller, the checks were fake.

Credit union auditors also examined Lathan's daily transactions from Jan. 2, 2009 to June 29, 2013, which revealed there were 277 instances in which she stole cash from the drawer that amounted to $508,182.

In all 277 transactions, auditors found Lathan falsely reported negotiables to bank transactions in order to zero out her negative check balance.

She also falsely represented in her daily batch reports that checks had been received when in fact they had not been received. That caused a variance in the amounts posted on the credit union's general ledger and the actual funds received by Essential, according to court records.

Richard Williams, president/CEO of Essential, did not return a phone call from CU Times on Thursday seeking comment about this case.