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Former Ill. ambulance service employee charged with stealing over $1M

Authorities say a former MedStar worker was arrested after a lengthy investigation and now faces theft, wire fraud and tax fraud charges

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A MedStar ambulance.

MedStar Ambulance/Facebook

Belleville News-Democrat

A former MedStar Ambulance employee is facing criminal charges accusing her of stealing more than $1 million from the company over several years, according to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.

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Members of the sheriff’s office and Illinois Department of Revenue arrested Carrie J. Kelley, 43, of Sparta, on Friday on the following charges:

  • Two counts of theft of property over $1 million, a Class X felony
  • One count of wire fraud, a Class 3 felony
  • Four counts of fraudulent filing of Illinois income tax, a Class 4 felony

Court records do not list an attorney for Kelley. She is being held at the Randolph County Jail.

The criminal charges come after a lengthy investigation.

Investigators in Randolph County were first notified of an alleged theft at MedStar in February 2024, the sheriff’s office stated in a news release. The Illinois Department of Revenue and Illinois Attorney General’s Office also assisted in the investigation.

“I want to credit the investigators who continued to work on this case and bring a closure to it,” Randolph County Sheriff Jarrod Peters stated in the release.

Peters encouraged anyone with information related to the case to contact the detective division at 618-826-5484, extension 506 or 507.

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