By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times
And the Scandalous Employee of The Year Award Goes To......drumroll....
A Los Angeles business man who once described his employee as "sweet" had no idea the woman he was hiring had a prison record for theft nor did he know she had bilked his cement company of nearly $1.6 million while handling his books.
Holly Daunielle Martin-Campbell, who was arrested in January on grand theft and forgery charges for embezzling over a million dollars from the company she worked for, was so scandalous that even after she was terminated for the embezzlement, she went on a brazen spending spree with a company-issued credit card, allegedly making $4,100 in purchases at various Southern California retail stores shortly before Christmas, buying two computers, a digital camera and hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards.
"The company didn't realize she still had the credit card until they got the bill," sheriff's Detective Christopher Derry told The DailyBreeze.com.
The Inglewood woman stole the money over a four-year period of time after she was hired in 2002 as an administrative secretary at Blue Daisy Cement Products on Compton Boulevard in the unincorporated area east of Harbor Gateway.
The spend-happy secretary used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, eating at high-end restaurants, attending sporting events and concerts, and buying a BMW sport utility vehicle for herself, and a home for her family in a gated community next to Hollywood Park, across from the Forum in Inglewood, said Derry.
"The owner thought, `Oh, this is a great employee. What a nice young lady,"' Derry said. "She was sweet, but, on the other hand, she was stealing like crazy."
When asked why he did not grow suspicious when Martin-Campbell arrived to work one day driving a BMW SUV, the owner said Martin-Campbell's parents are affluent and he believed they had purchased the car for her, not he.
What Martin-Campbell's boss, Larry Collins, also did not know was that the "sweet" secretary he hired in 2002 had served 16 months in a state prison during the 1990s for credit card theft.
"She was in charge of accounts receivable," Derry said. "Her job was to process the incoming checks from the company's customers."
Collins, Blue Daisy's owner, did not respond to requests for an interview from the DailyBreeze.com
Beginning in 2004, Martin-Campbell, a mother of two, had allegedly began depositing some of those checks into her own Bank of America account, although the checks were made out to Blue Daisy, Bank of America still accepted them for deposit into Martin-Campbell's account, said Derry. Then, to hide her theivery, she would delete the invoices from the company's computer, making the transaction disappear.
"The checks were anywhere from just a few thousand dollars up to $21,000," the detective said. "She made 266 deposits of these checks into her own bank account."
The company became suspicious sometime in 2008 when an accountatnt for Blue Daisy realized the company's profits were not matching the amount of products they were selling.
"They realized their boat was taking on water, but they didn't know where the hole was," Derry said.
For several months, Collins, the company owner, began scrutinizing the business transactions and following up with his customers to make sure they were paying him. It wasn't long before caught on to Martin-Campbell's scheme when he contacted a customer and accused them of not paying the company.
That company, however, produced a canceled check, which showed it had been deposited into the "company" accpunt at Bank of America. Blue Daisy did not have an account with Bank of America, but Martin-Campbell did.
While she pillaged the company, the 37-year-old lived a very extrvagant lifestyle, spending the money she looted from the company freely on high-end appliances, vehicles, including a Ducati Motorcycle for her husband and lavish meals.
Property records showed Martin-Campbell and her husband, Vincent Campbell, purchased the 2,597-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on April 11, 2006, in a newly built development next to Hollywood Park for $687,500.
Martin-Campbell's own profile picture on her Facebook site actually shows her husband standing next to a Ducati 1198S with one of her children propped upon the motorcycle, which rtails for about $22,000.
As soon as Collins noticed the lack of funds and traced the problem back to Martin-Campbell, the happy shopper administrative secretary was immediately fired and the Sheriff's Department's fraud bureau was called in to investigate.
"It was just a case of very blatant theft that went on for four years where a woman lived way beyond her means," Derry said. Detectives recovered some of the property from Martin-Campbell back in January when her home was searched.
Martin-Campbell, who owes approximately $1.3 million in restitution to the company, may have to sell her home and other property in order to pay the company back. Her parents have already paid back $300,000 of the monies so far. If she is convicted, she could receive up to 20 years in prison.
And the Scandalous Employee of The Year Award Goes To......drumroll....
A Los Angeles business man who once described his employee as "sweet" had no idea the woman he was hiring had a prison record for theft nor did he know she had bilked his cement company of nearly $1.6 million while handling his books.
Holly Daunielle Martin-Campbell, who was arrested in January on grand theft and forgery charges for embezzling over a million dollars from the company she worked for, was so scandalous that even after she was terminated for the embezzlement, she went on a brazen spending spree with a company-issued credit card, allegedly making $4,100 in purchases at various Southern California retail stores shortly before Christmas, buying two computers, a digital camera and hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards.
"The company didn't realize she still had the credit card until they got the bill," sheriff's Detective Christopher Derry told The DailyBreeze.com.
The Inglewood woman stole the money over a four-year period of time after she was hired in 2002 as an administrative secretary at Blue Daisy Cement Products on Compton Boulevard in the unincorporated area east of Harbor Gateway.
The spend-happy secretary used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, eating at high-end restaurants, attending sporting events and concerts, and buying a BMW sport utility vehicle for herself, and a home for her family in a gated community next to Hollywood Park, across from the Forum in Inglewood, said Derry.
"The owner thought, `Oh, this is a great employee. What a nice young lady,"' Derry said. "She was sweet, but, on the other hand, she was stealing like crazy."
When asked why he did not grow suspicious when Martin-Campbell arrived to work one day driving a BMW SUV, the owner said Martin-Campbell's parents are affluent and he believed they had purchased the car for her, not he.
What Martin-Campbell's boss, Larry Collins, also did not know was that the "sweet" secretary he hired in 2002 had served 16 months in a state prison during the 1990s for credit card theft.
"She was in charge of accounts receivable," Derry said. "Her job was to process the incoming checks from the company's customers."
Collins, Blue Daisy's owner, did not respond to requests for an interview from the DailyBreeze.com
Beginning in 2004, Martin-Campbell, a mother of two, had allegedly began depositing some of those checks into her own Bank of America account, although the checks were made out to Blue Daisy, Bank of America still accepted them for deposit into Martin-Campbell's account, said Derry. Then, to hide her theivery, she would delete the invoices from the company's computer, making the transaction disappear.
"The checks were anywhere from just a few thousand dollars up to $21,000," the detective said. "She made 266 deposits of these checks into her own bank account."
The company became suspicious sometime in 2008 when an accountatnt for Blue Daisy realized the company's profits were not matching the amount of products they were selling.
"They realized their boat was taking on water, but they didn't know where the hole was," Derry said.
For several months, Collins, the company owner, began scrutinizing the business transactions and following up with his customers to make sure they were paying him. It wasn't long before caught on to Martin-Campbell's scheme when he contacted a customer and accused them of not paying the company.
That company, however, produced a canceled check, which showed it had been deposited into the "company" accpunt at Bank of America. Blue Daisy did not have an account with Bank of America, but Martin-Campbell did.
While she pillaged the company, the 37-year-old lived a very extrvagant lifestyle, spending the money she looted from the company freely on high-end appliances, vehicles, including a Ducati Motorcycle for her husband and lavish meals.
Property records showed Martin-Campbell and her husband, Vincent Campbell, purchased the 2,597-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on April 11, 2006, in a newly built development next to Hollywood Park for $687,500.
Martin-Campbell's own profile picture on her Facebook site actually shows her husband standing next to a Ducati 1198S with one of her children propped upon the motorcycle, which rtails for about $22,000.
As soon as Collins noticed the lack of funds and traced the problem back to Martin-Campbell, the happy shopper administrative secretary was immediately fired and the Sheriff's Department's fraud bureau was called in to investigate.
"It was just a case of very blatant theft that went on for four years where a woman lived way beyond her means," Derry said. Detectives recovered some of the property from Martin-Campbell back in January when her home was searched.
Martin-Campbell, who owes approximately $1.3 million in restitution to the company, may have to sell her home and other property in order to pay the company back. Her parents have already paid back $300,000 of the monies so far. If she is convicted, she could receive up to 20 years in prison.
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