Hollister
– A Los Banos woman was sentenced to 16 months in state prison
Wednesday for embezzling almost $60,000 and nearly destroying a
local business in the process.
Hollister – A Los Banos woman was sentenced to 16 months in state prison Wednesday for embezzling almost $60,000 and nearly destroying a local business in the process.
Nicole Richard, 29, pleaded “no contest” to a single count of felony embezzlement in March after the company she worked for discovered the fraud. But her legal troubles are far from over. Richard also pleaded “no contest” to and was convicted of similar charges in Santa Cruz County last year after stealing more than $114,000 from another company.
Richard, employed as a bookkeeper, stole $58,000 from Hollister-based label printing company Sage Blanc during the seven months she worked for the company in 2004. She also racked up more than $5,000 in company credit card bills buying personal items, said Sage Blanc Owner and President Jim Wood.
“She hit the ground running. She took the very first check she ever handled,” he said. “If she would have been here another three months she have had $100,000.”
San Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders sentenced Richard to prison on Wednesday and ordered her to pay full restitution in the amount of $58,058. Richard, who had served one day in jail prior to sentencing, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Richard “isn’t sure why she committed” the crime, but said she was trying by off bills from her previous embezzlement case, according to a report by the San Benito County Probation Department.
She also is suspected of having “some significant, deep-seated psychological problems compelling her to commit these serious economic crimes,” according to the report. The report showed that Richard deposited between $5,000 and $12,000 each month that she worked for Sage Blanc, but said “other than paying debts from her former marriage and paying-off school loans, she has little to show for her crimes.”
Wood said Richard had been taking checks sent to the company and depositing them in her personal bank account at Washington Mutual in Hollister. Then she would create a deposit slip showing that invoice had been paid in order to cover up her crime, Wood said.
The result was devastating and nearly ruined the business Wood started in 1985.
“It created an awful lot of self-doubt,” he said. “Sales looked good, but we were coming up short every month. That’s what hurt the most.”
Richard’s embezzlement hurt the company both financially and emotionally, Wood said. Sales managers blamed themselves for the shortfall each month, not knowing that they were being stolen from, he said. Wood discovered the embezzlement with help from an outside accountant after calling customers about checks they had sent that never appeared on deposit slips. After the discovery, Wood said he was forced to take out a second mortgage on his home to “make ends meet.”
“I want to sue her civilly for the money I paid her,” Wood said. “Nowhere in her job description did it say steal (nearly) $60,000.”
Wood also filed suit against Washington Mutual last year in Santa Cruz County, alleging the bank knew that Richard was depositing checks into her personal account that were made out to Sage Blanc and never informed him.
“If we could have gotten a heads-up on this when she had taken $10,000, this would have been a much different case,” Wood said.
A bank official at the Hollister branch of Washington Mutual refused to comment on the case. The bank’s attorney in the lawsuit did not return phone calls by press time on Thursday. The lawsuit is still pending.
Sage Blanc hired Richard in November of 2004 after getting a letter of recommendation from her previous employer, Energy Control Equipment, a Watsonville-based company that manufactures electronic controls for walk-in coolers and freezers. Richard had worked for Energy Control Equipment for four years, stealing more than $114,000, said Ed Kersten, an owner of the company. Kersten said he didn’t find out about Richard’s dubious accounting methods until after she left in 2004. Richard is still awaiting sentencing in that case. Once sentenced, she could face additional restitution claims.
Richard is the process of selling her Los Banos home to pay back the money she stole, but the proceeds would only cover about $30,000 – a fraction of what she stole, according to court documents. In addition to serving time in prison and paying restitution, Richard is prohibited from working “in any situation which allows access to company money.”
San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield said white collar crimes could, in some cases, be nearly as marring as violent crimes.
“Large scale embezzlement can be devastating, especially for small businesses,” he said. “Its an aggravated form of theft and prison was warranted.”
Richard’s attorney did not return phone calls from the Free Lance by press time on Thursday. Her parents said she was “remorseful and saddened by the fact that she hurt so many people,” in a letter to the court.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
