Staff report
RALEIGH ó A Salisbury woman received an active prison sentence Thursday after pleading guilty in Wake County Superior Court to tax charges filed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Frankie J. Dabbs, 66, of 3415 N.C. Highway 152 East, Salisbury pleaded guilty on March 27, 2008 to one count of aiding and abetting Westside Chrysler Dodge, Inc. to embezzle North Carolina withholding tax and two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, a statement from the Department of Revenue said.
Superior Court Judge Ripley E. Rand sentenced Dabbs to a 28-month minimum, 36-month maximum prison term. The sentence was suspended and Dabbs was placed on supervised probation for 30 months. As a special condition of probation she was ordered to serve six months in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Correction.
She was also ordered to undergo a mental health assessment, turn over all documentation relating to Westside Chrysler Dodge, Inc. and fully cooperate with all law enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service upon her release.
The state’s evidence showed that Dabbs, as corporate treasurer and a responsible corporate officer of Westside Chrysler Dodge Jeep, Inc., aided and abetted the Mocksville dealership to feloniously embezzle and knowingly misapply $122,461 in North Carolina withholding tax, the statement said.
She also knowingly filed fraudulent 2005 and 2006 state individual income tax returns claiming $6,412 in state withholding that she knew had not been remitted by the company. These returns causing the state to give credit for and issue refunds greater than she was entitled to receive. Westside Chrysler Dodge Jeep, Inc. ceased operation in December 2007.According to the statement, Dabbs paid $162,959.44 in restitution to the Department of Revenue prior to her court date.
The charges against her resulted from an investigation by the Department’s Discovery and Special Projects Unit and a special agent with the Department’s Criminal Investigations Division in Raleigh.