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Fake Vista Official Sentenced

POSTED: 5:00 am PDT April 5, 2010
UPDATED: 4:16 pm PDT April 5, 2010

A woman who admitted charging thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment and other office supplies to the Vista Chamber of Commerce by posing as a representative of the agency was sentenced Monday to two years in prison and ordered make more than $50,000 in restitution.

Juanita Williams, 53, pleaded guilty in June to burglary and using an access card or personal identifying information of another. She was expected to be sentenced to 32 months in prison, but since her jail credits total 880 days, she will likely to paroled soon, said prosecutor Dan Owens.

"Her credits now exceed her sentence," the prosecutor said.

Financial crimes detectives arrested Williams on Jan. 21, 2009, at her Vista apartment.

The case came to light about three weeks earlier, when chamber officials reported finding a series of unauthorized charges on their Staples account, said San Diego County 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 sergeant said.

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, according to authorities.

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