Former volleyball club volunteer will have to repay nearly $20,000 she stole from club

A former volunteer at a Lakewood Ranch volleyball club was ordered on house arrest and to repay the almost $20,000 she stole from the club.

Jennifer Venditti, 43, was convicted of scheming to defraud less than $20,000 after taking a plea deal on Wednesday. Venditti was ordered on house arrest for six months followed by 12 months probation as part of the agreement.

Starting next month Venditti alsowill have to pay monthly installments to the Ranch Academy of Volleyball Excellence, RAVE, to reimburse the $19,367.50 she stole.

Venditti, the mother of one of the club’s players, had been in charge of the volleyball club’s finances until March 20, 2016, when she suddenly resigned. The club’s founder and head coach, Perry Hankins, asked that Venditti return all the club’s records.

Hankins soon uncovered that Venditti had requested and received a debit card for the account, without her knowledge, and that she had made several unauthorized ATM withdrawals.

In April, as the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office investigated the possible fraud, Hankins discovered that a much larger sum of money was missing from the club’s account. An investigation revealed Venditto’s unauthorized ATM withdrawals totaled $1,207.50, and that she wrote 17 checks to herself from the club’s account, totaling $17,160, that she deposited into her own account.

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Former volleyball club volunteer will have to repay nearly $20,000 she stole from club."