Freed embezzler sued for restitution

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Three days after her release from prison, where she served time for embezzling $608,053 from the Honda Store, Debra L. Chance was sued by the Boardman car dealership for the $590,816 she still owes in restitution.

Chance, 42, of New Middletown, the dealership’s former office manager, was released Tuesday by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, after serving about 27 months of the four-year prison term Judge Krichbaum had imposed on her.

The judge told Chance she will be on parole for the next five years and must complete a treatment program at the Community Corrections Association half-way house in Youngstown.

She must also maintain employment and pay half her salary to the dealership over the next five years as restitution.

While serving as the dealership’s office manager between 2005 and 2009, Chance would write loan checks to herself, write a phony receipt, then credit her own account, instead of putting the money into the dealership’s account, police said.

She also would take cash from the business transactions for a given day, write a check for the amount, but pull the check out of the daily deposit before the deposit was made to the bank.

The civil lawsuit, filed Friday on behalf of the dealership by Atty. Robert S. Bouffard, is assigned to Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.