Ex-Bookkeeper Gets Prison For Embezzling At Morrisville Company

MORRISVILLE, PA — A New Jersey woman will serve up to 20 years in prison for embezzling more than $400,000 from her employer in Morrisville.

Yolanda M. Torres, 44, of Hamilton, N.J., pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that she stole from Shu Dental Laboratory, at 102 W. Bridge St., between 2016 and 2018. Torres worked during that time as the company's bookkeeper.

Torres pleaded to charges of theft, identity theft, unlawful use of a computer, computer trespass and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity.

Prosecutors say Torres began stealing from the company almost immediately after she was hired in July 2016. She issued unauthorized company checks to herself, her son and other groups with which she was associated.

She also gave herself unauthorized pay raises and used the company owner's credit card for personal purchases. Her thefts averaged about $650 a day, according to prosecutors, who say they nearly sank the company its owner founded in 1983.

Prosecutors say the company's 71-year-old owner ultimately drained his retirement fund to keep the business afloat. Instead of retiring in May of last year, as planned, the owner now says he expects to keep working at least another seven or eight years, prosecutors said.

"What took the victim in this case decades to build, Yolanda Torres nearly destroyed in just two years," said Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber. "This defendant is a predator who, starting on day one of her employment, left a trail of destruction in her wake."

President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. accepted Torres’ plea, and ordered her to serve 6-20 years in state prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

She also must make restitution of $475,668.