South Portland girl accused of thieving fifty percent a million bucks from dentist who employed her
5 min read
Pamela Anzelc states her longtime former close friend and staff Theresa York stole at minimum 50 % a million dollars from her dental business office and hid it from her. York is anticipated to plead guilty later this thirty day period. But Anzelc mentioned the proposed sentence doesn’t do virtually adequate to make up for all that she’s dropped. Brianna Soukup/Team Photographe
Theresa York and Pamela Anzelc experienced been good friends due to the fact York joined Anzelc’s Portland dental apply in 1990.
The two young mothers and six many years apart in age, the households grew close. By 2001, York was Anzelc’s 2nd-in-command, in demand of depositing checks and coordinating with a personal accountant.
But in 2021, Anzelc gained devastating information: She was far more than $456,000 at the rear of on federal taxes, she reported, and she uncovered York was at fault.
For several years, Anzelc explained, York experienced been drafting checks for Anzelc to signal underneath the guise of paying out the business’s taxes, only to deposit them into her have accounts. York was also forging economic documents at the business office, Anzelc mentioned, and shredding notices from the IRS.
“She’d arrive in with a smile and faux she was there as my suitable-hand individual,” Anzelc explained. “And all the time, she was robbing me blind.”
York, 59, of South Portland, is predicted to plead guilty to a single rely of theft by unauthorized having, a course B crime, at a listening to scheduled for Aug. 28. By way of a plea settlement laid out in an e mail to Anzelc from a sufferer witness advocate, prosecutors approach to inquire that York get a suspended 6-calendar year sentence. She would only have to serve time powering bars if she violates a 3-year probation period of time.
Neither York nor her legal professional responded to calls and texts inquiring about the plea offer Friday. The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the offer a spokesperson reported they don’t comment on open cases.
Anzelc stated the proposed sentence doesn’t do almost enough to make up for all that she’s misplaced. Not only does Anzelc want to see York jailed, she also needs York to pay back Anzelc’s lawful fees.

Theresa York, remaining, visited Pamela Anzelc in Vital West, Fla., in 2018 while each ended up on vacation there. York is envisioned to plead responsible to a theft cost this thirty day period following she was accused of stealing 50 % a million bucks from Anzelc, her former friend and employer. Picture courtesy of Pamela Anzelc
SHREDDED NOTICES, False CHECKS
When Anzelc observed the IRS was issuing her penalties for late taxes in 2016, she was confused.
She claimed her accountant at the time was not concerned. He blamed it on cash stream troubles, she mentioned, and explained to her it comes about to a lot of other organizations. But he was relying exclusively on York’s word and in no way checked in with the IRS, Anzelc stated.
She began having voicemails from many out-of-point out numbers about unpaid taxes. York advised her it was most likely a fraud, Anzelc reported, and encouraged her not to get in touch with again.
Anzelc was on getaway in North Carolina on April 30, 2021, with her grandsons when she believed to test her lender account. She experienced been waiting much more than two days for a check out to deposit. But the IRS had frozen her lender accounts. They advised her she owed more than $456,000 in unpaid federal taxes from 2016 to 2019, Anzelc stated.
She worried instantly about payroll. She had about 9 personnel at the time.
“‘There have to be some blunder, this just cannot be appropriate,’” Anzelc remembered imagining. “Why would I hardly ever have received any notices of currently being in default?”
But it turns out the IRS had been sending her certified notices for many years, Anzelc said, and York was hiding and shredding them.
But Anzelc claimed she did not know that yet and tried using texting York for help.
“At dinner. Sorry. This is just crazy! I’m freaking out as well,” Anzelc claimed York texted. “I will go on the net and glimpse closely when I can.” Anzelc claimed York finished the textual content “with a kissy-encounter.”
That Friday was the last time Anzelc listened to from York. Anzelc mentioned she now thinks her mate was fleeing to her family’s dwelling in Arizona.
Immediately after submitting a report with Portland police on May perhaps 5, 2021, Anzelc said she was wanting via a bin of files to be shredded and identified an envelope of York’s private charges and an IRS detect wedged in between them.
Officer Henry William Johnson wrote in the May well 5 report that other staff remembered observing letters from the IRS, “and Theresa generally claimed they were being ‘junk mail.’”
‘A Criminal offense OF THIS MAGNITUDE’
Anzelc said she experienced to consider out a 50 %-million-greenback loan to spend her taxes. The amount she owed grew in 2020 and 2021.
Although police investigated – York was indicted in April, approximately two years following Anzelc’s law enforcement report – Anzelc employed her possess lawyers, who achieved a $475,000 restitution agreement with York in August 2021.
She explained York is shelling out her back in $2,000-a-thirty day period installments. But the restitution arrangement won’t protect the $83,000 she said she expended on authorized expenses and accounting, nor will it cover the $6,238 Anzelc is paying in bank loan curiosity.
Anzelc stated she strategies to be at York’s sentencing. There is a letter she wrote to the court in York’s file, calling for a harsher sentence.
“Please know that one of the several items that will assistance me and my relatives mend is to know that justice has been served,” Anzelc wrote. “I hope and pray that a crime of this magnitude calls for that the perpetrator, Terry York, spends time in jail. I consider she has to replicate on what she did to me and my household.”
Lisa Morrison, who at times worked for Anzelc answering phone calls and managing consumption, stated she was pals with York for additional than 40 many years, going back to eighth quality. York is a godmother to Morrison’s son.
In her personal letter to the court docket, Morrison stated she was upset in York and felt awful for Anzelc.
“I’ve misplaced a friend in this, for the reason that I simply cannot stand by and be a close friend to another person who would do this to a individual like Pam,” Morrison explained in an job interview Friday. “Pam was a pretty good man or woman to her.”
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