Early release denied for Chance who stole $600K

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A request for early release from prison by Debra L. Chance, the former office manager who stole more than $600,000 from The Honda Store in Boardman, has been denied.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court denied her request in a ruling filed Thursday.

After her guilty plea to the theft in 2010, Judge Krichbaum sentenced Chance, 41, of New Middletown, to four years in prison beginning in February 2011 and ordered her to make full restitution.

Chance also applied for early release in 2011. Judge Krichbaum denied that request as well.

Police said Chance was the car dealership’s office manager and had been stealing money from the business.

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 Chance 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.

Police confiscated three business checks Chance is believed to have made out to herself and signed with a fictitious name.

According to police reports, during an internal investigation, Chance acknowledged owing the business more than $23,000 on falsified checks.