State Courts

Wichita woman wrote $200,000 in business checks to herself

By Ron Sylvester

Becky Vanderhoff-Huber was an office manager for Plains Petroleum when she started writing company checks to her self. For more than a year, she wrote checks in her own name, and by the time the company found out she’d stolen nearly $200,000.

This morning, Sedgwick County District Judge Mark Vining sentenced the 32-year-old mother of two to three years in prison and ordered her to repay $199,467.

Vanderhoff-Huber pleaded guilty in November to felony theft. Prosecutors say she didn’t try to hide what she was doing. She cut numerous company checks to herself, one for $9,146.08, from February 2006 to September 2007.

Investigators never learned where the money went, and prosecutors said Vanderhoff-Huber did not live an extravagant lifestyle.

At the time of her arrest, Vanderhoff-Huber said in a financial affidavit that she worked at Horizon Milling in Wichita making $2,400 a month.

Full post as published by What the Judge Ate for Breakfast on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).