Harmony Woman Charged with Stealing More Than $70,000 from Employer Surrenders to District Attorney

A Harmony woman is charged with stealing $73,714 from a Bellevue company where she once worked as an account manager.

Patricia Alice Lumley, 58, is charged with receiving stolen property, access device fraud and four felony counts of theft.

She surrendered to the Allegheny County District Attorneys Office Monday. Following her arraignment, Lumley was released on a non-monetary bond. Her preliminary hearing set for March 28 before District Judge Tara L. Smith in Pittsburgh.

According to the affidavit filed by Jackelyn Weibel, a detective with the District Attorney's Office working in fraud, Lumley began working for DeFinis Mechanical Contractors, where she was in charge of the company's accounting, including accounts payable and payroll, in July 2010.

During her time with the company, Lumley overpaid her salary by $12,442, executed four business checks worth $6,364 made payable to herself, took out $7,879 in unauthorized withdrawals from ATM machines located around Portersville, Butler and Harmony and made $47,031 in unauthorized debit card purchases and online payments to her own accounts, including American Express and Verizon accounts.

Detectives began to investigate Lumley in January after a DeFinis employee hired to replace Lumley found accounting irregularities.

When authorities interviewed Lumley March 1 in her attorney’s office in Pittsburgh, she told investigators that she and construction owner Craig DeFinis had an agreement in place where she would be “laid off” for four months because of cash flow issues at the company, but would continue to work full time while collecting unemployment.

She told investigators she had to increase her payroll to make up for the money she lost during the time she was collecting unemployment compensation, court documents said.

Lumley told investigators she could not remember or had no answer for making several company vendor checks payable to her personal account. She later admitted making ATM withdrawals from company accounts for her personal benefit.

DeFinis told investigators he did lay off Lumley when business was slow, but said she continued to work a few hours per week for the company.

During that time, he said he paid Lumley the difference between her prior salary and her unemployment compensation. He denied that Lumley worked full time during her lay off and said he never had a deal in place with her to increase her salary.

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