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Teller pleads guilty in Sugar Grove bank theft

A former Sugar Grove bank teller recently pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $100,000 over a four-year period.

Alyson M. Ruggie, 31, of the 500 block of Gregory Lane, Plano, faces anywhere from probation to seven years in prison when sentenced June 30 by Kane County Judge Clint Hull.

Ruggie was charged after an auditor in January 2014 found a discrepancy of about $104,000 at the American Heartland Bank, 799 Heartland Drive, where Ruggie worked.

Ruggie was accused of stealing about $90,000 from the bank and not its customers, police said at the time.

Police obtained a search warrant for a safety deposit box after the discrepancy was found, but the search came up empty.

According to a search warrant, Ruggie told Sugar Grove police she stole the money between early 2001 and early 2012 to help pay the mortgage on her home, which was in foreclosure.

In exchange for the guilty plea in late May, prosecutors dismissed two other charges of misappropriation of financial institution property between $10,00 and $100,000, and theft by deception.

Both charges carried the same potential penalty as theft between $10,000 and $100,000, which is the charge to which Ruggie pleaded guilty.

A message left with Ruggie's defense attorney, William King, was not immediately returned Monday.

Ruggie surrendered to authorities in May 2014 and is free after posting 10 percent of her $50,000 bail.

She did not have a previous criminal record in Kane County.

Woman surrenders in Sugar Grove bank theft case

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