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North Bloomfield woman sentenced to 30 months for stealing from job
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Alicia M. Sardich, 29, of North Bloomfield has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing $101,117 over nine months in 2012 as secretary and bookkeeper for two Fowler Township companies.
Sardich, of Kinsman Road, pleaded guilty in January before Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to two counts of grand theft and one of misuse of a credit card.
Judge Logan sentenced her Tuesday and ordered her to repay the money, which she told a detective with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office she took because of a gambling habit.
The owners of Trumbull Contracting Corp. and Keystone Recycling, both of 4474 Youngstown-Kingsville Road in Fowler Township, fired her in March 2013 after they discovered financial discrepancies.
Company officials said in a civil suit last year that Sardich forged company checks totaling $97,107 made payable to herself and others and made unauthorized credit-card purchases of $4,011.
A statement read in court Tuesday said the thefts caused the company’s two owners, Brad Manning and Ken Cunningham, to forgo a paycheck “for six months or longer” and prevented them from updating equipment.
“Doing without paychecks has put great distress on our family lives,” the statement from Cunningham said. “Medical insurance for our employees had to be discontinued due to our lack of funds.”
Manning said Sardich “has shown no remorse, not attempted to pay Keystone Recycling and Trumbull Contracting back.” Manning said the companies had to reduce staffing as a result of the thefts.
“In our opinion, she is not going to stop,” Manning said of stealing.
Sardich was sentenced to probation in September 2012 after being convicted of felony robbery for assaulting a loss-prevention officer and attempting to steal $248 in merchandise from the Howland Kohl’s department store in 2011.
She was bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury in the Kohl’s incident about the same time Trumbull Contracting and Keystone Recycling hired her. She didn’t mention the Kohl’s criminal charges to Cunningham and Manning when they hired her, Manning said.