Summer Salm of Ohio embezzled $26,500 from dentist; sentenced to 15 months in prison

Summer Salm, a woman who embezzled $26,500 from a West Chester Twp. dental office, will spend the next 15 months in prison.
Salm, 34, of Franklin, Ohio was sentenced by Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of theft by deception in August.

Summer Salm stole cash

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said Salm worked for Dr. Joel Koch in his dental offices as a billing clerk. When people paid their co-pays, Gmoser said Salm would enter the amount in the computer, give the patient a receipt and then erase the payment and pocket the cash.

The second prong to her “elaborate scam” was to bill her insurance for false medical claims for family members and then retain the 80 percent insurance payment, according to Gmoser. He credited his assistant prosecutor Susan Schultz and West Chester Twp. Det. Jim Thomas for securing Summer Salm’s conviction.

“This was an outstanding effort by our ‘white-collar’ team,” Gmoser said. “It takes a lot of diligence and keen investigative skills to put together a successful financial fraud case, and with the assistance of Detective Thomas, Assistant Prosecutor Schultz was able to present a very clear case to the jury.”

We understand that Salm, whose middle name is Nichole, sometimes goes by Nikki or Nichole, and that her last name may now be Palmer.  Her date of birth is Feb 21, 1977.

A search of Ohio criminal records reveals previous theft convictions in Montgomery County, OH in 2007 and again in 2009 and unauthorized use of property in Warren County OH in 2013.  Our information is that these thefts were from other dental practices.  She has a bankruptcy filing from 2015 that, unusually, was not discharged until 2021 as well as previous bankruptcies in 2011, 2005, and 2001.

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Content retrieved from  http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/crime-law/woman-embezzled-26500-from-dentist/nNYMX/