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Woman gets four years for theft
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman convicted of stealing more than $600,000 from a local car dealership was led away from the courtroom in handcuffs to spend the next four years in prison after a judge called her crime despicable.
Debra L. Chance, 40, of Kerrywood Street, was sentenced Tuesday by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on one count of theft, a third-degree felony.
Chance originally had been charged with aggravated theft, a second-degree felony, but pleaded to the reduced charge in a plea agreement with prosecutors. Prosecutors recommended the four-year sentence.
Chance had been an office manager at The Honda Store on Boardman-Canfield Road from 2005 through March 2009 and had been stealing funds from the company for most of that time, according to police.
She 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, writing a check for the amount of the cash but pulling the check out of the daily deposit before the deposit was made to the bank, they added.
By the end of the four-year span of time, Chance had walked away with about $608,000.
Prosecutors said the company’s insurance paid about $250,000 and Chance made a payment of $10,000 to the company. Under the terms of her plea agreement, Chance also agreed to hand over money from a personal-injury settlement she will be receiving, but the exact value of that settlement is not yet known.
Atty. Douglas Taylor, representing Chance, told the court his client “is sadly and pitifully remorseful,” but does not have a prior record and cooperated with police in the investigation. He asked the court for mercy.
Atty. Robert Bouffard, representing the dealership, asked the court to consider making Chance reimburse the company in full as part of her sentence.
Dealership owner David Flynn told the court he does not believe Chance is sorry and is concerned about a four-year recommended sentence for a theft of more than $600,000. He said the theft affected employees and charitable donations by the company.
“This is a lot of money. A lot of people did get harmed,” he said.
Krichbaum said he believes that Chance is truly remorseful, but he does not understand how someone put in a position of trust could allow herself to end up in such a position. He said restitution in the case is a must.
“This is as serious a theft offense as one can commit,” said Krichbaum. “I am truly of the belief that restitution must be paid in full. To betray the trust of these good people who tried to help and better you is despicable.”
Krichbaum ultimately sentenced Chance to a four-year prison term and ordered that she pay the company back in full. She will get credit for two days spent in the county jail.
Chance told the court that she wants to make the situation right.
“I want to do whatever it takes to repay this,” she said. “This is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to go through in my life.”