LI Woman Gets Year In Jail For Stealing From Kids' Aid Company

PLAINVIEW, NY — A Suffolk County woman was sentenced to a year in prison today for embezzling nearly $150,000 from a Long Island company that provides services to children with developmental delays.

Patricia Sales, 46, of Huntington Station, pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny on Nov. 17. Today, she was sentenced to 364 days in jail.

“After discovering Sales had failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll taxes to the IRS as All About Kids’ director of finance, further investigation revealed the defendant used the company coffers as a personal bank account, issuing herself checks and stealing tens of thousands of dollars in company funds,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “Individuals who abuse their authority for personal gain will be caught and held accountable for their actions.”

According to Donnelly, Sales worked as the director of finance for All About Kids, a Plainview-based company that provides therapy and educational services to children with developmental delays. As part of her job, Sales had access to the company's payroll and the systems for generating checks, as well as a stamp of the owner's signature.

In February 2020, employees were looking in Sales' office for copies of bank statements, when they found several mailed notices from the IRS. The notices said that the company had failed to pay payroll taxes since at least June 2019. All About Kids owed more than $700,000 in taxes and $140,000 in penalties. Sales was fired on Feb. 7, 2020.

The discovery sparked an internal investigation at the company. After an in-depth review of checks, bank statements and accounting systems, the company found that Sales had made out checks to herself. She stole $143,680 from All About Kids. After discovering the theft, the company notified the district attorney's office.