SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A woman from Aurora received a federal prison sentence of two years and nine months on Friday for mail fraud and filing false tax returns in a scheme to embezzle $247,448 from her employer. Diana Erickson, 46, admitted she embezzled $219,606 from Superior Lifts between Sept. 7, 2006, and April 2, 2008, and she embezzled $34,242 from Goolsby Rental Properties between March 14, 2006, and Dec. 18, 2006.
In 2006, Erickson was employed as a bookkeeper at Superior Lifts, which sold automobile lifts and other products. Superior Lifts, which is no longer in business, had its office in Aurora in 2004 and moved to Nixa in 2009. The owners of Superior Lifts also operated Goolsby Rental Properties, a second business that managed rental properties in the Wichita, Kan., area. Erickson also performed bookkeeping duties for Goolsby Rental Properties.
When customers of Superior Lifts mailed bank checks as payments, Erickson repeatedly intercepted those checks and deposited them in her own personal bank account.
