A Hamburg woman going to jail for four to eight years for embezzling $263,135
Joan Joyce, 57, stole the money while working as the bookkeeper for ECC Electrical Construction in Cheektowaga from 2006 through April 2015. She wrote checks to pay for her personal expenses, like credit card debt that she accumulated through gambling.
She also purchased a computer, put a down payment on a 2014 Toyota RAV4 and paid for her mother's funeral.
Joyce pleaded guilty to second degree grand larceny and five counts of first degree offering a false instrument for filing in February.
As part of her sentence, she will have to repay the full amount as well as $15,150 to the state in back taxes.
