FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A woman convicted of stealing more than $300,000 from a South Florida business where she worked as a bookkeeper was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison.
Jaqueline Roberts, 58, will be on probation for 20 years after she is released and will have to pay $350,000 in restitution.
Donna and Ken Kotrady contacted police in January 2014 and said that Roberts stole more than $500,000 from their business, Mr. Electric.
They said they hired Roberts in 2006 to do the bookkeeping.
During her time there, she developed a solid working relationship with the Kotradys, even becoming friends, according to the couple.
"She kind of brought us out of one accounting system and into another, which was easier, and we later found it was easier to manipulate," Ken Kotrady said.
The Kotradys said they later learned that Roberts paid for a vacation and several other things with their money.
"During the recreation, we found one thing after another just mushroomed and in total the embezzlement was $547,000," Ken Kontrady said.