Newbury Park woman gets jail time for felony grand theft, forgery

A 57-year-old Newbury Park woman was sentenced Monday to 18 months in jail and 2½ years of supervised release after pleading guilty to felony charges of grand theft and forgery, authorities said. 

Laureen Martinez pleaded guilty to three counts of felony grand theft and one count of felony forgery in January, according to a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. 

Martinez worked for Access Information Protocol, a local company that provides information and data-storage solutions. In her position, she was responsible for billing clients, officials said. 

Using her position, Martinez “misdirected clients’ checks to bank accounts that she personally controlled,” according to the news release. In December 2017, the company discovered the thefts and company personnel and Moorpark police detectives analyzed bank records that confirmed Martinez stole about $182,000 from Access Information Protocol. 

Martinez was also ordered to pay a total of $307,746 in restitution to the company because it incurred accounting and legal costs as a result of the thefts, according to the news release. 

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