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Woman Pleads Guilty To Posing As Vista Official

POSTED: 2:52 pm PDT June 24, 2009
UPDATED: 3:46 pm PDT June 24, 2009

A woman who charged $10,000 worth of computer equipment and other office supplies to the Vista Chamber of Commerce by posing as a representative of the agency pleaded guilty Wednesday to burglary and other charges.

Juanita Williams, 52, will receive a 32-month prison sentence at an Aug. 6 hearing at the Vista Courthouse.

She pleaded guilty to a pair of commercial burglary charges and two counts of using an access card or personal identifying information of another.

Financial crimes detectives arrested Williams Jan. 21 at her apartment in Vista.

The case came to light about three weeks earlier, when chamber officials reported finding a series of unauthorized charges on their Staples account, said sheriff's Sgt. Mark Varnau.

Williams was able to make fraudulent purchases at stores in San Diego, San Marcos, Vista and Hemet by convincing officials at the retailer's corporate office that she was an approved buyer for the business-support organization.

The defendant did so by providing identification numbers, passwords or similar data linked to the chamber's coffers, Varnau said.

Among the items illegitimately bought at the stores were computer hardware and software and prepaid gift cards.
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