Update April 2021:
Heather Smith, 44, of North Strabane Township, pleaded guilty before Judge Valarie Costanzo, who sentenced her to 6 to 23 months confinement, followed by eight years of probation.
The judge also ordered Smith to pay $251,843 restitution to Dr. Leonard Radnor, with minimum monthly payments of $500 to begin 30 days after her release from the jail.
Update Feb 2020:
A woman who admitted to committing theft and theft by deception while she was an office manager at a Peters Township dental practice is to report to the Washington County jail on March 1.
Heather Smith sentenced to 6 months in prison
Heather Smith, 44, of North Strabane Township, pleaded guilty before Judge Valarie Costanzo, who sentenced her to 6 to 23 months confinement, followed by eight years of probation.
The judge also ordered Heather Smith to pay $251,843 restitution to Dr. Leonard Radnor, with minimum monthly payments of $500 to begin 30 days after her release from the jail.
“If the defendant pays the restitution in full, she may petition for early termination of her probation,” Costanzo said when she imposed the sentence in late January.
The judge also ordered Smith to submit to a mental health evaluation and complete recommended treatment, and to have no contact with Leonard or Brooke Radnor, their family members, or their business.
After being notified by the dentist and his wife, Peters Township police charged Heather Smith with falsifying payroll records by inflating her hours over a period of years and claiming holiday, overtime, and sick pay to which she was not entitled.
Smith had been responsible for recording her own hours on a timesheet, as well as consolidating hours of all employees on a worksheet. She then reported the hours to the office’s payroll company, police said.
Charges of receiving stolen property and tampering with records were dismissed.
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Content retrieved from: https://observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/theft-from-employer-topped-woman-sentenced-to-jail-must-pay/article_3e96e9ae-541b-11ea-9ff4-ff0bb46bd520.html
Original story:
A North Strabane Township woman was arraigned Tuesday on theft charges after she allegedly stole more than $68,000 through falsification of pay records while working as an office manager at a Peters Township dental practice.
Heather N. Smith, 43, of 14 Smith Place, was charged by Peters police with theft by deception, receiving stolen property and tampering with records or identification.
Township police were contacted in April about suspected fraud at the office of Leonard Radnor, DMD, 157 Waterdam Road. Radnor and his wife told the police they had learned Smith might have been fraudulently inflating her own pay over the last few years.
Through an audit and an extensive review of employee payroll documents, police said it was determined that Smith was claiming work hours that had not been approved and which could not have been reasonably worked.
Smith is accused of improperly claiming holiday hours and sick time, as well as overtime, from 2014 through 2017. Police indicated in court documents holiday and sick time are not offered at the practice.
Unauthorized pay increases also were allegedly identified on Smith’s earnings records. Smith had been responsible for recording her own hours on a time sheet, as well as consolidating hours of all employees on a worksheet. She then reported the hours to the office’s payroll company.
Police allege Smith repeatedly falsified the documents to account for her inflated hours. Some of those documents and records were missing from the office.
Police indicated it was suggested Smith did work at home to account for some or all of the overtime hours, but the Radnors did not believe the work needed to be done remotely. The laptop Smith had available for use outside the office did not have the necessary software to process patient claims, police said.
Smith was arraigned before District Judge Jesse Pettit and released on $68,000 unsecured bond. She is scheduled for a July 10 preliminary hearing before District Judge David Mark.
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Content retrieved from https://observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/former-peters-dental-office-manager-charged-with-theft/article_3d661e12-7a36-11e8-ae43-2b8fb12ec48b.html