Former Dover office manager sentenced for embezzling

A federal judge sentenced a former office manager to 45 months imprisonment on Wednesday for embezzling more than $1 million from a Dover medical practice.

Pamela Poore, once a longtime employee of Internal Medicine of Dover, pleaded guilty last year to mail fraud. A review of court documents by The News Journal showed Poore, 50, of Smyrna, ran the practice's day-to-day accounting operations, such as depositing cash and managing payroll and 401(k) plans.

In this role, Poore pocketed money from the business for about seven years. She wrote checks to herself, opened unauthorized American Express accounts in the practice's name, gave herself unauthorized raises and stole cash deposits, court documents said.

Once Poore depleted the practice's funds, she obtained a $120,000 fraudulent business line of credit to cover payroll, according to court documents.

A federal prosecutor wrote in court filings that Poore was able to live a "comfortable lifestyle" with the funds. This included buying expensive clothes, renting a beach house in Bethany Beach, paying off a car loan and hosting a wedding reception for her son.

In addition to the prison sentence, Poore will serve 3 years probation, and make restitution in the amount of $1,040,448.88.

She's scheduled to report to prison on April 15.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.