<p>An audit of a Madison County court's bank accounts conducted after investigators arrested a clerk on theft charges revealed nearly $30,000 was found missing, the county's probate judge said.</p><p>"We didn't realize it was that much money," said Madison County Sheriff Clayton Lowe.</p><p>Sheriff's officers and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents estimated last month that $20,000 was missing from the Madison County Probate Court's accounts when they arrested former court clerk Cana Mary Chambers in connection with the missing money.</p><p>Chambers, 23, was charged with felony theft by taking and making a false report of a crime, a misdemeanor. She had told investigators a week earlier that someone had taken a bag of money from a locked table drawer.</p><p>The initial estimate was based on a quick review of the court's financial records, but it quickly ballooned to $30,000 after a more intensive audit.</p><p>"It's just a shock," said Madison County Probate Court Judge Donald "Hoppy" Royston.</p><p>Authorities are investigating whether part of the missing money may be traffic fines paid to the court but never deposited into accounts, Lowe said.</p><p>The office collects about $500,000 a year in traffic fines, fees for marriage and firearms licenses and other revenue, said the judge.</p><p>Chambers had worked in the office for about four years and had served as the office's elections clerk.</p><p>She was summoned back to the office at Royston's request after she was arrested to help prepare for a runoff election. The judge said no one else knew how to set up the county's voting machines.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2dea214)</p>
