On the golf course a little undercounting is not unheard of as players shave a stroke or two from this hole or that one to make their score more bearable back at the clubhouse.<\/p>\n
\nBut at the tiny clubhouse in Brentwood, two employees of a golf course operated by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center may have made the biggest score of all \u2013 by undercounting greens fees and concessionaire profits and pocketing thousands of dollars, authorities say.<\/p>\n
\nThe two have been fired and are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to theft of government funds from the popular links.
\nCourse starter Christopher Spelio, 62, of Inglewood and co-worker Brian Clark, 36, of Santa Monica, were caught after VA police placed surveillance equipment in the small World War II-era Quonset hut that serves as the nine-hole course\u2019s clubhouse, according to authorities. <\/p>\n
Police were tipped off by other course employees who suspected that the pair were embezzling cash, according to VA officials.
\nInvestigators indicated that the systematic stealing could have been going on for as long as six years, with the loss totaling $180,000. Others have suggested that as much as $200,000 in user fees might have been taken.<\/p>\n
\nAlthough disabled military veterans play for free, other veterans pay $6 per round. The public can play for $12 on a space-available basis.
\nThat has made the par-three course at the back of the VA\u2019s sprawling grounds north of Wilshire Boulevard a popular destination for Westside golfers, particularly those just learning the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So there was widespread dismay last March 30 when officials padlocked the seven-acre course and declared it off-limits to all but the medical center\u2019s patients who use it for doctor-prescribed therapy.
\nAt first, the VA attributed the shutdown to \u201cscheduling\u201d issues. <\/p>\n
Later, officials acknowledged that apparent financial improprieties were to blame.
\nNeither Spelio nor Clark could be reached for comment Monday.
\nDoug Carver, the special agent in charge of criminal investigations for the VA Office of Inspector General\u2019s western field office, said the men entered misdemeanor guilty pleas in Los Angeles County Superior Court. <\/p>\n
The case was handled by the Los Angeles city attorney\u2019s office for the federal government. <\/p>\n
— Bob Pool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the golf course a little undercounting is not unheard of as players shave a stroke or two from this hole or that one to make their score more bearable back at the clubhouse. But at the tiny clubhouse in Brentwood, two employees of a golf course operated by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}