August 13, 2010 in Nation/World

Thief gets 21-year house arrest term

Mary Claire Dale Associated Press
 

PHILADELPHIA – An office manager who admitted stealing $475,000 from her employer has been sentenced to 21 years of house arrest so she can work to repay it.

Lanette Sansoni’s unusual sentence came after her ex-boss said he was more interested in restitution than jail time, her lawyer said.

“This was just a creative compromise,” defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. said Thursday. “I think it will encourage her to pay it off, so the judge was pretty smart about it.”

Sansoni, 40, has repaid about $275,000 after selling her home in Warminster, just north of Philadelphia, and moving in with her mother. She will remain on house arrest until the remaining $200,000 is repaid to Kenneth Slomine, who owned JRS Settlement Services, a title company in Lower Moreland Township.

Montgomery County Judge Joseph A. Smyth on Wednesday set a payment schedule of $750 a month, which works out to about 21 years.

Sansoni can leave home to work but could go to jail if the payments stop. She has a job paying $700 a week, Peruto said.

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Two comments on this story so far. Add yours!

  • misjustice on August 13 at 9:09 a.m.

    This story highlights the importance of stealing big, if you are so inclined to steal; don’t take penny ante stuff, go for the half a million dollar pay day! Petty theft will only land you in jail - stealing large will enable you to avoid jail AND keep your job!

  • monkeyman on August 13 at 11:01 a.m.

    Can she pay off early and get off the hook sooner?

    We need something like this for the bank/business CEOs who effectively steal from the public.

    And for the Bell, CA city officials… but the “legal stealing” has to be stop first.

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