Former Tuscaloosa County license commissioner pleads guilty to felony charges

Ken Roberts, The Tuscaloosa News
·2 min read
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A former Tuscaloosa County license commissioner has been convicted on felony charges of using her public office for personal gain, theft and fraud.

Lynne Campbell Robbins pleaded guilty to the charges in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court, according to a Friday news release from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.

“A public servant is entrusted with protecting taxpayer funds, but Robbins took advantage of that trust for personal gain,” Marshall said. “Public corruption has a ripple effect, and we must root out the problem to rebuild trust in our communities.”

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Robbins must pay $136,511.55 in restitution to Tuscaloosa County and will spend two years and four months in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections as part of her plea agreement.

She served as license commissioner from October 2017 until December 2019 and had worked with the Tuscaloosa County License Commission since 1999.

According to the Tuscaloosa County Commission website, the license commissioner processes applications for state certificates of title, license plates, boat registrations, certain manufactured home registrations, driver license and non-driver ID card renewals, issuance of certain business and professional licenses, hunting and fishing licenses and business license. The office also assesses and collects ad valorem taxes.

A grand jury indicted Robbins in August 2021.

Robbins pleaded guilty to using her public employment for personal gain, a Class B felony; first-degree theft, also a Class B felony; and computer tampering for the purpose of committing an unlawful act, a Class C felony.

Marshall thanked the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts and the Tuscaloosa County License Commission for assisting in the case against Robbins.

Here's how the attorney general's office described Robbins' scheme:

  • Robbins used her access to the License Commission’s computer network and database to gain access to the public’s licensing transactions to take money. Robbins would “refund” a previous sales tax or license plate transaction and take the amount of the refund out of the License Commission’s cash deposits for herself. The Tuscaloosa taxpayers who obtained their tags in those transactions did not receive the money from the refunds. Robbins took $131,881.55 through this scheme, according to the attorney general.

  • Also, Robbins wrote a series of sixteen checks from her personal checking account made payable to the License Commission totaling $4,850 in 2019. She placed these checks into the License Commission’s cash drawers and took $4,850 in cash. These checks were returned unpaid due to insufficient funds in Robbins’ personal checking account. Robbins did not return the face value of the checks and avoided the $30 fee that was charged to the citizens of Tuscaloosa County who bounced checks at the License Commission.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Ex-Tuscaloosa County license commissioner guilty of misusing office