A 68-year-old food services director at Harvey School District 152 in Illinois, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for stealing$ 1.5 million worth of chicken wings meant for kids during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
Vera Liddell allegedly abused her position as the director of food service to reportedly commit an offence, which the district only learned when it learned that the school system had overpaid its expenses, according to the New York Post.
The Cook County State Attorney’s Office claimed Liddell started the phony business in July 2020 and continued until February 2022, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
Police claim that Liddell used college funds to buy a sizable amount of livestock and transport it using a college cargo van. The district continues to provide students with food products during distant learning while the pandemic was at its height, but the students never received any of the feathers.
The claims against Liddell, who had served as the food service scalp for 10 years, were originally filed in January 2023 and included extortion and operating a legal business.
A habit inspection by a college business manager led to the discovery of Liddell’s misconduct. Even though there were still several weeks in the school year, the assessment revealed that Liddell’s food prices had already exceeded the budget by$ 300,000, which led to his arrest and subsequent legal action.
Liddell accepted a criminal appeal in the case before she received the nine-year jail sentence, WGN reported.
