One charged with principal to grand theft

CHIPLEY – Chipley Police have charged a local bank employee with felony principal to grand theft in the alleged theft of over $23,000 in Social Security funds in the name of a woman deceased for two years.

According to the police report Peggy Kennedy Wilson, 56, of Chipley was an employee of Capital City Bank in Chipley when between Feb. 2, 2007 and Aug. 11, 2009 nine checks were cashed on the account of Erma Puryear, who died on Jan. 11, 2007. The funds were drawn from Social Security payments sent to Puryear, whose death was apparently not reported to SSI.

LT. Dennis Speight said in the report that the suspect said she gave 10 counter checks to someone that claimed to be a relative of Puryear. Speight said Wilson told him that she asked for the check back and was told that if she ever said anything “that he would tell everyone that she also was involved in this.”

A total of $23,100 in checks was cashed in Puryear’s name at Capital City Bank since her death, the report stated.

A check was sent to Cooper Funeral Home to pay for the funeral, and Speight said the defendant said that she told him that she had assumed that Cooper Funeral Home would contact SSI about Puryear’s death. Speight said Capital City Bank has contacted SSI about the matter.

Checks were issued in a number of different amounts ranging $813 to $3,700. The most recent was on Aug. 11 at the bank drive through window when the defendant told Speight that she gave an unknown person a ride, and told the investigator that she had no idea what the person was cashing until the following day, according to the police report.

Wilson's initials were found on three checks according to the police report.