‘Egregious’ crime: Judge sends Garmin, Black & Veatch embezzler to prison for 8 years

A woman who stole large sums of money from two of the Kansas City area’s most prominent companies was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in federal prison.

Patricia Webb, 44, of Lee’s Summit, embezzled $1.5 million while working in the payroll departments of Garmin International and Black & Veatch.

Webb pleaded guilty last November in U.S. District Court in Kansas City to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

As part of her plea agreement with prosecutors, she agreed to pay restitution of just over $1.5 million.

District Judge Roseann Ketchmark departed from federal guidelines, which had called for a maximum sentence of six years and nine months.

The judge called it an egregious crime, involving multiple victims over a protracted period of time.

From February 2012 through May 2014, Webb worked as a senior payroll specialist for Olathe-based Garmin.

During that time she transferred more than $1.2 million from the company to her private bank account.

She left Garmin and took a similar payroll position with Overland Park-based Black & Veatch. She embezzled more than $300,000 from the company over a period of about five months before the thefts were discovered.

The Garmin thefts were not discovered until she had left the company.

Webb previously was prosecuted under the name of Patricia Holmes in Jackson County Circuit Court for forging checks while working at John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit.

She was a payroll clerk at John Knox when she was charged with forging two checks totaling $3,347, according to court records.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery in 2012, according to the records, and was placed on probation.

The judge noted that three days before she was sentenced in the Jackson County case, Webb embezzled about $31,000 from Garmin.

Ketchmark also said she found it “shocking” that while Webb was on bond in the federal case, she presented falsified documents to a potential employer.

Before she was sentenced, Webb told the judge that she was truly remorseful for what she did.

She said she accepted full responsibility and would embrace the opportunity to “right the wrong.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 11:39 AM with the headline "‘Egregious’ crime: Judge sends Garmin, Black & Veatch embezzler to prison for 8 years."