Ex-Office Manager of Sonoma Co. Hardware Stores Gets Prison For Thefts

A former office manager of the Garrett Hardware stores in Windsor and Healdsburg was sentenced this morning to three years and four months in prison for stealing $350,000 from the business over six years.

Glynis Susan Lewis, 45, of Santa Rosa, also was ordered to pay $415,819 in restitution to the company.

Deputy District Attorney Amy Ariyoshi argued for the maximum sentence of five years in prison. Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Robert LaForge denied probation and sentenced Lewis to the lower term. He said Lewis took advantage of her position of trust in the company, but had no prior record and took responsibility for her actions early in the court proceedings. Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies arrested Lewis in her home on June 12 for grand theft, money laundering and possession of stolen property.

Lewis pleaded no contest to grand theft on Jan. 15. Garrett Hardware’s business owners discovered irregularities in Lewis’ accounting practices in October 2013.

When Lewis learned she was under investigation, she wrote a letter of apology with an admission statement and resigned, sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Raasch said. The six-month sheriff’s investigation determined Lewis took money from daily cash deposits between 2006 and November 2012, Raasch said.

Ariyoshi told the judge Lewis disliked working for Garrett Hardware and that led to her greed and sense of entitlement to the money. Ariyoshi said Lewis never actively offered to repay the business or help the owners determine how much money was taken.

“She owned a prison sentence from day one,” Ariyoshi said.

Lewis’ attorney Roy Miller said his client has no earnings to pay restitution but would do her best to repay the money if she received probation instead of a prison term.

After the sentencing, Diane Anderson, the controller of Garrett Hardware, said the real victims of the theft are the stores’ employees who lost wages because their hours were cut for years.

“The employees don’t receive restitution. Their wages were frozen for years. This isn’t a case of someone stealing to put food on the table, it’s a case about indulgence,” Anderson said.

--Bay City News

--Shutterstock image

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