Dentist decries short sentence for former employee who stole $92K from practice
Employee theft a problem for dental businesses, financial investigator says
A Halifax-area dentist who had more than $92,000 stolen from his practice by a former employee is speaking out after the woman only served about five weeks of a five-month sentence before being released to house arrest.
Tamara Farnell was sentenced to five months in jail earlier this year after stealing from the dental practice of Dr. Phil Mintern in Bedford, N.S.
“We expected her to serve probably more than half of that, at least,” Mintern said in an interview.
“She only served, probably five or six weeks of a five-month sentence, and to us, that doesn’t seem like appropriate consequences for the amount of pain she caused.”
Mintern said his bookkeeper first discovered financial discrepancies in 2023. He said Farnell, who was his office manager at the time, blamed them on insurance payments that hadn’t come in yet. But in 2024, the bookkeeper flagged the same problems had returned.
Mintern said that’s when he started to look into things more closely, calling in extra people to help. That help included a forensic financial investigator whose entire business is dedicated to ferreting out problems like employee theft.
Embezzlement a problem among dental offices
William Hiltz said it’s a bigger problem than people may realize.
“There is a large problem, not only for dentists, but also for any fee-for-service medical profession,” Hiltz said in an interview.
“Medical spas are also large victims of this — anywhere where people pay out of pocket or insurance pays.”
Hiltz said 60 per cent of dentists are likely to be victims of embezzlement over the course of their career, assuming that career lasts about 30 years.
Mintern said in his case, the thefts were small amounts, spread out over a long period of time.
“She had, on at least 267 separate occasions, altered deposits … so small amounts add up over long periods of time.”
Mintern estimates that Farnell stole a lot more than she admitted to, perhaps even double the $92,000. But getting proof good enough to stand up in court is an expensive and time-consuming process and it can easily become more expensive than it’s worth.
He said things came to a head one weekend when they finally uncovered what he describes as “smoking gun stuff,” proving that Farnell had been taking small amounts of money from deposits and other payments.
Mintern said Farnell was working that weekend, but left abruptly before they uncovered the last details.
“We never really had an opportunity to confront Tamara about this directly,” he said. Mintern said he messaged Farnell with questions about specific details, but she eventually just emailed her resignation.
“She said she was sorry, but not that she was responsible for anything and to us that’s kind of the kicker here, is there’s never been any sort of acceptance of responsibility,” Mintern said.
Mintern said the thefts hit especially hard because Farnell hadn’t just been an employee. He said his wife threw her a 50th birthday party and the two women had travelled together. Farnell had even babysat his two young children.
“So the lack of accountability and the lack of remorse that we’ve seen is just, to us, unbelievable,” Mintern said.
Mintern has launched a civil suit against Farnell, but he said he’s not expecting to recover the money he’s lost. He said he felt it was important to come forward to draw attention to the problem and encourage others who might find themselves in a similar circumstance to speak up, rather than sweep it under the rug.
He said failing to speak up would allow a crooked employee to move on to another job and target someone else. But this experience has not soured him on other people, he said.
“It’s hurtful that it resulted in us getting stabbed in the back, so to speak, but I don’t want that to jade my view of hiring someone and trying to give them the benefit of a great career and a great profession.”
Source: N.S. dentist decries short sentence for former employee who stole $92K from practice | CBC News
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