Courtesy mug/Volusia Branch Jail. Patrick Holley, 41, of New Smyrna Beach, was arrested Friday on charges he embezzled $640,000 from guests at a Daytona Beach Shores hotel where he worked until he was fired in October.
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- A New Smyrna Beach resident was arrested Friday on two felony theft charges involving $640,000 stolen from the Days Inn Tropical Seas on South Atlantic Avenue while he was general manager there until his firing in October, police said.
When arrested at his family's Samsula residence Friday morning, Patrick Holley, 41, told investigators he had less than $100 to his name, Daytona Beach Shores police said later in the day, according to Daytona Beach Shores police.
Holley was being held on $200,000 bail at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach. He is charged with two felonies that could net him at least 15 years in prison if convicted: grand theft of more than $100,000 (the minimum to meet the legal threshhold for the amount claimed by police) and theft by an employee.
The hotel's ownership group, Buffalo, N.Y.-based GEIEL management learned of the alleged thefts after several customers complained they had been double-billed, police said. There were also other irregularities and discrepancies where customers paying with cash weren't accounted for and expenses billed to the hotel for services never rendered under Holley's watch, according to police charging affidavits.
The thefts date back three years, police said they learned when they began a criminal investigation in December when the hotel's ownership group filed a criminal complaint alleging theft by Holley.
Police said they also discovered solicitation of prostitutes by Holley in hotel computers, in which women were to "come and stay at the hotel for free in exchange for favors."
Holley worked for the hotel for 15 years, and when police first contacted him in May, he refused to cooperate, police said. None of the money has been recovered, police said.