Woman Accused of Swindling $350,000 From Car Wash

APPLE VALLEY  (AP) - A woman who kept the books at an Apple Valley car wash is accused of swindling $350,000.

Forty-six-year-old Connie Rogers is charged in Dakota County with nine counts of felony theft by swindle. A criminal complaint says Rogers wrote excess payroll checks to herself from 2008 to 2012 while she was employed as an accountant for Paradise Car Wash.

The complaint says when the manager confronted Rogers about the theft she acknowledged issuing the checks, then voiding the checks so they would not show up on her W-2 tax statements. Prosecutors say Rogers would transfer money from one account to another to cover up the payments.