Former Peach County chief deputy tax commissioner pleads guilty to felony theft by taking

The former Peach County chief deputy tax commissioner has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by taking.

Cynthia "Cindy" Ann Doles, 52, was accused of embezzling more than $25,000 from county tax coffers over several years.

She was indicted in August on charges of theft by taking in breach of a fiduciary obligation and theft by taking in excess of $25,000. The later charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement, said Charles Cox, her Macon attorney.

Superior Court Judge Tripp Self sentenced Doles to 180 days in jail and four and a half years on probation, said Cindy Adams, an assistant district attorney for the Macon Judicial District, which includes Peach County.

Doles was also ordered to pay full restitution to Peach County, which she already has done, Adams said. The amount of restitution was $30,628, Cox said.

"She's taken responsibility for this and made restitution and done everything she could to take responsibility for her conduct," Cox said.

At the time of her plea Feb. 9, Doles was ordered to report to the Jones County jail at 5 p.m. the same day. She has since been moved to the Houston County jail to complete her sentence.

The GBI brought charges against Doles in March after an audit of funds conducted by elected Tax Commissioner W.L. Brown, said J.T. Ricketson, special agent in charge of the GBI office in Perry.

Doles was terminated from the job on Jan. 23, 2105, after "multiple violations of established procedures in the course of her duties," according to a separation notice in her county personnel file. She worked 21 years for the county and was paid $846 per week, or about $44,000 per year.

About two months before her arrest, Brown noticed "some impropriety in the paperwork and deposits" and began his own internal audit trying to account for funds, Ricketson previously told The Telegraph.

"As he started digging into it, he realized that some money was missing," Ricketson said. "So he immediately went to Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese and reported it, which is the right thing to do."

Knowing the investigation involved a Peach County employee, Deese contacted the GBI "to get an outside agency to come in, so there wouldn't be any question of about a Peach County sheriff investigating a Peach County employee," Ricketson said.

The GBI met with Brown, Deese and a representative from the district attorney's office, and all agreed to have Brown conduct an audit as part of the GBI investigation because he was familiar with the accounting system and paperwork.

"He was able to identify a single individual who was responsible for taking in money, and that money was never reaching the deposit bag," Ricketson said.

The audit went back several years. The theft happened between Feb. 1, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2015, according to the indictment.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559, or find her on Twitter@becpurser.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Former Peach County chief deputy tax commissioner pleads guilty to felony theft by taking ."