Woman charged with tax fraud, grand theft

COEUR d’ALENE — Police arrested a woman who is accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars in cash from her employer and failing to pay taxes on the funds. 

Laura J. Drake, 71, is charged with four counts of tax fraud, as well as perjury and grand theft, all felonies. 

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office began investigating in December 2022, according to court records, after receiving a report that an employee of North Idaho Physical Therapy had identified discrepancies in the logbooks and believed the logbooks had been altered, amounting to a loss of more than $60,000 between 2017 and 2022. 

North Idaho Physical Therapy employees told police they believed cash was taken from the Hayden, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene locations and they suspected Drake, who had worked for the business since 2012. 

Two managers for the business told police that, during a meeting with them in December 2022, Drake allegedly admitted to taking cash from the daily clinic funds, then altering the logbooks to make them appear balanced, according to court records. Drake’s employment was reportedly terminated after the meeting. 

Police said the alleged scheme remained unnoticed until bank statements compared to financial reports showed inconsistent earnings. 

“(Drake) claimed she paid some of the money back,” court records said, though a billing manager for North Idaho Physical Therapy told police it was virtually impossible to determine if Drake had done so. 

Prosecutors allege that Drake failed to report $12,249 of income for tax year 2019, $13,365 for tax year 2020, $17,306 for tax year 2021 and $13,669 for tax year 2022, totaling more than $56,000 in unreported income across a four-year period. 

Drake also allegedly declared that her 2021 tax filing was “true, correct and/or complete” when she knew this to be false. 

Prosecutors filed felony charges against Drake in December and a Kootenai County judge issued a summons in January. After Drake failed to appear in court, a judge issued a $50,000 warrant for her arrest, according to court records. 

Police took Drake into custody Monday. 

In Idaho, tax fraud is punishable by up to five years in prison.