AN office manager who admitted stealing $US475,000 ($529,577.50) 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,” Defence Attorney A Charles Peruto Jr said today. “I think it will encourage her to pay it off, so the judge was pretty smart about it.”
Mr Peruto, a veteran defence lawyer in the region, guessed the two-decade term may be a record for house arrest in Pennsylvania. State officials could not immediately confirm that.
Sansoni, 40, has repaid about $US275,000 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 $US200,000 is repaid to Kenneth Slomine, who owned JRS Settlement Services, a title company in Lower Moreland Township.
Montgomery County Judge Joseph A Smyth yesterday set a payment schedule of $US750 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 $US700 a week, Mr Peruto said, but he wouldn’t disclose what it is.
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