Office manager sentenced to 15 years for defrauding dental practices

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - A woman working as an office manager in two Manatee County dental offices has been sent to prison for diverting payments from patients to her personal bank account.

Tiffany Denyse Young was sentenced Sept. 3 to 15 years in Florida State Prison followed by 15 years of probation, the state attorney’s office said.

Prosecutors said Young defrauded the local practices out of tens of thousands of dollars by having patients leave the “Pay to:” section of their checks blank, then filling in her own name before depositing the checks into her personal bank account.

In many of the cases, Young also altered the amounts of checks to increase the dollar amount, before depositing the checks.

She also altered credit/debit card payments of patients to smaller amounts, prior to p