Riverhead woman pleads guilty to $400K accounting firm theft

A Riverhead woman pleaded guilty last week to stealing about $400,000 from an accounting firm using checks from an elderly victim, authorities said.

Sheila Parrish-Miles, 54, of Riverhead was fired from her job as a staff accountant at an accounting firm last October for poor job performance, Suffolk County District Attorney spokesman Robert Clifford said.

Ms. Parrish-Miles had been responsible for assisting an elderly man with his bill payment and banking. After she was fired, one of the firm’s partners discovered she had been writing about $400,000 in checks, endorsing them and depositing the checks into her personal bank account, Mr. Clifford said.

Authorities did not identify the accounting firm Ms. Parrish-Miles worked at.

She was arrested last August and indicted on second-degree grand larceny charges, which she pleaded guilty to last week.

The DA’s office has recommended she be sentenced to three to nine years in prison, though she has entered into a sentencing promise with the court to be sentenced to 2 to 6 years, Mr. Clifford said.