By Talia Mollett
tmollett@mdjonline.com
COBB COUNTY - A former Georgia Tech employee serving time in federal prison for using the university's procurement cards (p-cards) to purchase more than 3,800 personal items now faces felony theft charges in Cobb County.
Donna Renee Gamble, 43, is accused of stealing nearly $12,000 from the Marietta Middle School Band Boosters Club in 2006 while she served as the club's treasurer.
Col. Milton Beck of the Cobb Sheriff's Office said Gamble wrote about 30 checks from the club's United Community Bank account to her husband, Mickey Gamble, without sufficient supporting documentation. The money was deposited into the couple's joint Wachovia bank account, according to the warrant.
"It's a nonprofit booster club," Beck said. "It's really an unfortunate incident."
Beck said police are not expected to file charges against Gamble's husband at this time.
Gamble is serving a 32-month sentence at the medium-security FCI Coleman prison in Florida after admitting to a five-year shopping spree that totaled more than $300,000 in personal expenses on the university credit card. She entered a guilty plea to 22 counts of theft in August.
Beck said once the case is formally indicted, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office would put a hold on Gamble and arrange for her return to Georgia to answer the new charges.
The university hired gamble in 1999 as an administrative coordinator at the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience. In 2004, she was hired to work for the Georgia Tech College of Agriculture as an accountant. As part of her new job, she was the college's p-card coordinator.
Gamble used the cards, which had a maximum credit limit of $15,000, to purchase items including season tickets to Auburn football, a Philips widescreen high definition television, Yamaha Wave Runner and treadmill.
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This is one greedy woman. To steal from Ga.Tech an institute for education and then steal from a middle school booster club. Lady I hope they lose the key on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
how does one rack up 12k What are the auditors doing sleeping on the job?. Appears the county should audit more than once a quarter to catch persons responsible for stealing money from the citizens. We need to have a check and balnce system that continually audits.