Employee Embezzles Over $300,000 From Chester County Business

Read Time:2 Minute, 47 Second

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced the arrest of defendant
Cynthia Taylor for stealing over $330,000 from her employer, Ballymore Company, in
Sadsbury Township, Chester County Pennsylvania. Ballymore manufactures rolling
safety ladders used in many big box stores. The defendant used the company credit card
for personal expenditures and then doctored the internal records to cover up her crime.
The defendant has been charged with felony theft and related offenses.
The defendant is 37 years old. She resides in Gap, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. The defendant was employed by Ballymore as an account manager.
District Attorney Hogan stated, “Ballymore Company discovered this theft through
internal auditing and an internal investigation. It is an unfortunate reminder that all
businesses are vulnerable to insiders who abuse their position of trust. That is why
businesses, big and small, need to have internal safeguards and always keep an eye on
people managing the finances.”
The facts alleged in the criminal complaint are as follows:1

The defendant worked at Ballymore for seven years, rising to the position of Major
Account Manager. In this role, she reported directly to Ballymore’s president and was
responsible for managing the employee expenses account with American Express.
Ballymore had a business account through American Express and numerous employees,
including the defendant, were issued business credit cards.

1 A criminal defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
When the monthly statements came in, the defendant was responsible for checking
the employee expenditures and then coding the expenditures into the company’s internal
records.
In October of 2017, the company performed an internal audit, which revealed
significant discrepancies between the American Express statements and their
corresponding internal records. Ballymore acted swiftly and professionally by
performing an internal investigation, discovering the full extent of the problem, and
reporting the crime to law enforcement.
Ballymore discovered that the defendant had, since 2013, been using the company
American Express card for personal expenses. The defendant then covered up her fraud
by changing the records to appear as though she had incurred legitimate business
expenses. For example, in December of 2015, she used the company card to spend
$163.21 at Gamestop, an electronics and video game store. The defendant changed the
records to reflect that it was a business purchase from Amazon Market and coded it as a
business expense. The defendant employed this strategy at least 2,443 times from
January of 2013 until she was terminated from the company in November of 2017 after
the fraud was discovered.
Ballymore reported this crime to the Sadsbury Township Police Department, who,
along with the Chester County Detectives, investigated the theft. Based on a thorough
review of the records as well as Ballymore’s own internal investigation, detectives
confirmed that the defendant stole $331,563.00 from Ballymore, abusing her position for
personal gain. The defendant used the company card for gifts, purses, groceries, and
other personal items. She used the card to shop at stores such as Coach, Ralph Lauren,
Vera Bradley, Kay Jewelers, and Michael Kors.
The defendant has been charged with felony theft and access device fraud.
This case was investigated by the Chester County Detectives and the Sadsbury
Township Police Department. Anybody with further information should contact
Detective John O’Donnell at 610-344-6866. The assigned prosecutor is Brian D. Burack.