The Pettis County Sheriff’s Office has put new procedures in place in hopes of preventing future theft from the department.
The changes were prompted by the arrest of a former sheriff’s office employee last week. Ben E. Banner, 54, of Green Ridge, has been charged with forgery and receiving stolen property after he was arrested Thursday by Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
Banner previously served as the Pettis County Deputy Coroner and for the sheriff’s office handling concealed carry weapon permits, considered a combined full-time job with the county. He was terminated in August 2016 by Pettis County Coroner Skip Smith. A previous article stated Bond terminated Banner, which was incorrect.
According to court documents, both office reports and an independent audit of the sheriff’s office account showed $22,925 in cash was missing between January and August 2016, which had been taken in as payments for CCW permits issued by the office. Banner told the Johnson County detective he had no knowledge of any missing money.
On Wednesday, Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond provided some insight into the timeline of events.
“We noticed some irregularities in mid-September, but we really didn’t know the full extent of it until we did the end-of-year audit (for 2016),” Bond explained. “We wanted to make sure the irregularities were actually there and we weren’t missing something in the process.”
Bond said the office administrator, who receives money that is processed through the department, first noticed the irregularities in the account, then notified the deputy now in charge of Pettis County’s CCW program. After looking into the issue, Bond was notified there was a problem.
Over the last seven months, law enforcement has been working to obtain records from the CCW system, which are not publicly available but are available to law enforcement. Bond enlisted the help of a reserve deputy who is also a lawyer and certified public accountant to help with compiling the initial financial data.
The electronic records for Pettis County’s CCW processing is contracted through the Missouri Sheriff’s Association, according to Bond. The association has a record of all transactions and numbers for each permit issued.
“There are two types of permits, new permits and renewals. We had to differentiate how many permits there were, then how many were new and how many were renewal,” Bond said. “Then we had to cross-check them with the number of receipts and the amount of money that came in. There was a significant delay in receiving the information, we had two separate requests to get that information from the association. That is primarily the delay (from the audit results to last week’s arrest).”
Bond noted he enlisted the help of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to conduct the bulk of the investigation. Bond’s office first compiled the financial data to make sure the missing amounts were adding up, then contacted Johnson County Sheriff Scott Munsterman last week to assign a detective. The compiled data was turned over to the Johnson County detective.
“I did that so there is no appearance of improprieties, and to make sure there was an outside entity looking at it,” Bond added.
Once the missing funds were discovered, Bond said his office immediately changed its operations to ensure there are more checks and balances when it comes to finances.
For example, the detective discovered that of the 182 permits issued or renewed in March 2016, Banner only issued written receipts for a handful of them.
“There were not sufficient receipts to match the number of permits that were issued. The person receiving the funds was issuing the receipts, and we have changed that operation to ensure there is checks and balances there,” Bond said. “It’s separation of duties, making sure the fox isn’t watching the hen house. We’ve instituted some procedures to diversify that process to ensure the number of permits that come in matches the amount of money that’s taken in as well.”
Banner has also been accused of forging the new CCW program deputy’s signature on his 2016 CCW permit renewal application.
Smith told the Democrat on Wednesday they have not found any financial irregularities regarding his office, as he doesn’t deal with payments or collecting funds.
During a hearing Wednesday, Banner’s bond was reduced from $23,000 cash-only to $25,000 surety or $5,000 cash-only. Banner’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 29.
Online court documents show Banner’s criminal history only includes minor offenses, including passing a bad check in 1996 and various traffic violations.
