PA: Former ambulance employee pleads guilty in $642k theft

Bill Kearney

Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

Bucks County Courier Times - Jul 17, 2013 - Former ambulance employee pleads guilty in $642k theft

A former Warrington Community Ambulance employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $642,000 from the nonprofit over a four-year period, and her attorney said she blew it all at casinos.

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"Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

Bucks County Courier Times - Jul 17, 2013 - Former ambulance employee pleads guilty in $642k theft

A former Warrington Community Ambulance employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $642,000 from the nonprofit over a four-year period, and her attorney said she blew it all at casinos.




Danette Lewchick, 56, of Augusta Drive in Warwick, could face up to 27 years in prison at her sentencing.

Lewchick pleaded guilty to charges of theft and dealing in the proceeds of illegal activities before Bucks County Judge Clyde W. Waite on Tuesday morning.

“Miss Lewchick has a severe, severe gambling problem,” her attorney Jeffrey Solar said as he left the courthouse.

Lewchick became the ambulance services’ financial secretary in 2008 and by April was in control of the nonprofit’s finances. Marc J. Furber, chief of the district attorney’s financial crimes and arson division, said the investigation revealed that between January 2008 and July 2012 Lewchick wrote checks to herself or to be cashed, increased her paychecks beyond what she should have received and even made direct withdraws from the ambulance accounts, including many at a Parx Casino ATM.

Furber said county and township investigators, assisted by Financial Forensic Consultants, found that in a variety of ways Lewchick stole $642,741.25 from the ambulance company.

When the judge asked if she agreed with Furber’s summation of events, Lewchick answered, “Substantially, yes.”

Her sentencing has been deferred until court officials conduct a presentence investigation into her past to help create a report for a sentence recommendation. Solar requested the presentence investigation on her behalf.

Before becoming the financial secretary at Warrington Community Ambulance, Lewchick used the names Danette Faulstick and Danette Albanese of Northampton. She divorced in 2004. At that time, she was awarded bankruptcy on debts including $201,000 in mortgages and vehicle loans, more than $178,000 in personal loans and credit card debt and nearly $40,000 owed to Harrah’s, Borgata and Trump casinos.

Court records show Danette Albanese married the father of Warrington ambulance board Chairwoman Jennifer Lewchick in 2009. Authorities have said they believe Jennifer Lewchick did not know about the thefts.

“We are disappointed that sentencing didn’t happen today,” the ambulance company’s attorney, Grace Deon, said after the guilty plea. “(Warrington Ambulance) was hoping to close this chapter and move forward today.”
Deon said that the township now has a signor involved in the nonprofit’s finances, because a significant portion of the ambulance company’s funding comes from the township. She said it serves as an extra pair of eyes and another layer of oversight.
Deon and Furber said the schemes Lewchick used were clever and difficult to unveil.

“This was a theft that did take a lot to uncover,” Furber said. “It took two seasoned investigators, forensic accountants and the cooperation of numerous financial entities to determine the scope of the theft and the methods by which the defendant concealed it.”

Throughout the scheme, Lewchick maintained the appearance that the ambulance company’s finances were running smoothly by altering reports to account for the missing money. Occasionally she would alter the records to show duplicate payments to the same vendor — as if splitting the monthly cost into two payments, when in fact, she was paying the vendor once and herself once, according to authorities.