Employee Steals Thousands From Tosa Business, Complaint Says

A 34-year-old Pewaukee woman was charged on Thursday with 17 counts of forgery after she was accused of modifying checks that were made out to a Wauwatosa business in order to fund her addiction to Percocet.

Erin N. Kopan faces up to 51 years in prison and $170,000 in fines if convicted of the forgery charges. She is scheduled to appear in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Sept. 9.

The Wauwatosa Police Department was contacted about the thefts in March 2012 after staff with Eye Care Vision reported they believed that an employee, Kopan, was forging and altering checks written out to Eye Care Vision and depositing them into her personal account at PNC Bank in Pewaukee, according to the criminal complaint.

Investigators traced more than a dozen forged checks totaling a loss of more than  $2,200 to Eye Care Vision between June 2010 and August 2010, the complaint states.

Kopan admitted to the forged checks and told investigators she stole between $5,000 and $8,000 from Eye Care Vision to fund her addiction to Percocet, according to the complaint.