Pa. credit union teller gets prison term in ATM thefts

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The former head teller for a western Pennsylvania credit union has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for fudging bank records to cover up stealing $400,000 from three of the agency’s automated teller machines.

Fifty-six-year-old Shirley Howl was sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Pittsburgh after pleading guilty in October to falsifying the records.

Federal prosecutors say Howl, of New Brighton, took the money from the West-Aircomm Federal Credit Union from August 2007 until November 2009.

Howl faked ledger entries before the machines were audited so it would look as though some money from the ATMs had been transferred to a vault. Then she changed records to make it appear the money in the vault was moved back into the machines, so the money in the vault would match records.