Woman admits stealing about $350,000 from friend’s businesses

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer Updated 9:20 PM Monday, January 4, 2010

BROOKVILLE —Losing nearly $350,000 was a harsh blow to Hazel and Larry Newsome. That the money was stolen by a close friend was crushing.

“Losing the money was bad. But the betrayal was worse,” Larry Newsome said Monday, Jan. 4. “She was my wife’s best friend. I was the best man at her wedding. Her kids called us aunt and uncle.”

Angela Arde, 41, of Lewisburg was the bookkeeper for the Newsomes’ businesses for 10 years. She pleaded guilty on Dec. 29 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to theft.

As part of the plea, Arde agreed to pay restitution and serve three years in prison. Sentencing is Jan. 27, and because Arde said she was indigent, she was given a public defender.

“We’re never going to see this money again,” Hazel Newsome said. “The best job she ever had was the one with us.”

Over the past 18 years, the Newsomes have launched four business including a day care, Action Plumbing & Mechanical, Direct Service and Supply, and Better Building Controls.

“We’re hanging on by our fingernails” as a result of the thefts, Larry Newsome said. “I borrowed against our house to pay the bills.”

Brookville Detective Don Duncan said Arde worked the theft by writing herself checks — 506 of them — from the various businesses, cashing them, then erasing the record of them from the computer system. If the Newsomes noticed a shortage in one of the business accounts, Arde would move money from another account to balance the books.

“She was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Duncan said.

“But over four years she stole $348,953.82 that we can prove. More money is missing. She never said where it (the money) went. All she said to me was she 'took a lot of vacations,’ ” the detective said.

“She took our retirement, our kids’ college fund. We borrowed against the house,” Hazel Newsome said. “And she never apologized.”

Perhaps the most unkind cut of all came when Arde’s husband died in December 2008. She went to the Newsomes to say she had no money to bury her husband. The Newsomes bought a cemetery lot and paid for the funeral.

“That same month, she stole $5,200 from us,” Larry Newsome said.

Arde could not be reached for comment.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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