Former manager of Dad’s Travel Center gets jail time for embezzlement
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IDAHO FALLS — An Idaho Falls man will served 60 days in Bonneville County Jail after being found guilty of stealing from his employer.
Kevin Bird, 58, a former manager at Dad’s 113 Travel Center on Overland Drive, received a sentence of six years with two years fixed and four years indeterminate. District Judge Dane Watkins Jr. suspended the prison sentence and placed Bird on felony probation. He did, however, impose a 60-day sentence of local jail time.
As a condition of Bird’s probation, he is ordered to pay back $110,000 of the more than $200,000 he stole.
The Post Register reported Bird’s attorney, Margaret Olson, said the agreed-upon restitution amount was lower than the amount embezzled, but is the most Bird is able to pay back. She said Bird has been unemployed since January 2015 and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy May 5.
Bird was arrested in September 2015 for a felony grand theft charge following a several-month investigation by the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office.
Court records show the investigation was started after an accountant for Dad’s discovered a missing invoice in December 2014. Dad’s later found Bird had stolen more than $90,000 from the company. The accountant turned over the findings to the sheriff’s office in January 2015. Investigators found the actual dollar amount to be $200,000. A criminal complaint was filed against Bird in September 2015.
Court records show Bird was responsible for ordering specific items for Dad’s Travel Center. In 2012, Bird fashioned his own business, CML Group. Bird used that business to produce false invoices to Dad’s for products he was responsible for ordering. Bird would mark up the prices charged to Dad’s and pocket the difference.
CML Group had an annual revenue estimate of $49,000, and the address was listed as Bird’s Idaho Falls home.
Bird pleaded guilty in late March to the one felony count of grand theft.