A Pine Cove store clerk accused of stealing upwards of $100,000 from his workplace was charged Tuesday with grand theft.
Vincent Daniel Gillman, 51, was arrested last Thursday night following a weeks-long Riverside County sheriff’s investigation .
Gillman pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Kelly Hansen, who scheduled a bail review hearing for Thursday at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
The defendant is being held in lieu of $85,000 bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Reichle, investigators were alerted earlier this month to suspected thievery at the Pine Cove Market at 23235 Highway 243, just north of Idyllwild, where “an abnormally large” amount of money had turned up missing, bewildering the proprietors.
Detectives from the sheriff’s Hemet station began examining business records and collecting other evidence that pointed to Gillman as the alleged source of the stolen funds.
Reichle said it was determined that the defendant “had been stealing cash from the register and the ATM machine on a routine basis.”
“It is believed Gillman embezzled over $100,000 in an eight-month period,” the sergeant said.
The defendant was arrested without a struggle at his workplace.
He has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.