Women accused of stealing $422K from family insurance business

LAKELAND, Fla. - Polk County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested two women accused of stealing almost a half million dollars from the company owned by their family member.

Investigators say Cynthia Applewhite and Sherryl Devine could have some day taken over the family business, called Jack's Insurance. That's the direction they were headed back in 2007 when Devine's mother promoted her and her daughter-in-law, Applewhite to more active roles.

Sheriff Grady Judd said almost immediately, the pair started accepting cash as a form of payment from customers and pocketed the money. Detectives believe it went undetected for so long because the pair still paid customer's premiums using the business account.

"Stealing is wrong, but can you believe that you would steal from your own mother or mother-in-law? That's exactly what happened," said Judd. "The customers were never ripped off. They were simply ripping off the family business."

Ray Young, who has been a customer of Jack's Inusrance for five years, recognized the mug shots of both Applewhite and Devine.

"We paid in cash, always paid in cash," he said. "Wow. That's crazy. Half million? What in the world would they do with all that money?"

Investigators said this all happened over the course of two and a half years. The suspected thieves are also accused of stealing money from the business by paying for some of their own bills using the business account. The sheriff said they found other ways to steal as well.

"The thing that got me is that they paid themselves commission or bonuses, while they were stealing the money," he said. "That's just amazing."

Applewhite was booked into the Polk County Jail, but posted bond, and was released Saturday.  We stopped by her home in Lakeland but the family was in no mood to talk.

Sherryl Devine, of Bradenton, was booked into the Manatee County Jail, but will be transferred to Polk County.

"Can you believe these two thieves? Their poor mother/mother-in-law trusted these women to run the family business, and this is how they repay her - by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.  "That is one of the lowest things people can do - steal from honest hard working people who trust them. They should be made to pay every penny back, with interest!”