Willow Grove woman admits role in $785K theft from employer

NORRISTOWN » A Willow Grove woman must serve probation and share in the payment of a hefty restitution bill after she admitted to her role in a scheme with her husband to steal more than $785,000 from her Upper Moreland employer to pay for her husband’s gambling debts.

Rebecca Lyn Rimer, 42, of the 400 block of Woodlawn Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to five years’ probation after she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by unlawful taking in connection with thefts that occurred between October 2015 and April 2017 while she worked at Guaranteed Abstract Corporation in Upper Moreland, a business owned by her father.

Judge William R. Carpenter, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Rimer to share with her co-defendant, Joseph Byrne, in the payment of $785,037 in restitution in connection with the theft.

Byrne, 33, of the 800 block of Blossom Road, Warminster, Bucks County, who was identified in court papers as Rimer’s husband at the time of the thefts, previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of theft by unlawful taking and conspiracy to commit theft in connection with the crime.

Byrne, who remains free on bail pending sentencing in October, faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.

During his guilty plea colloquy, Byrne stated he previously underwent treatment for drug addiction, according to court papers. Judge Carpenter ordered that Byrne undergo drug and alcohol evaluations prior to his sentencing hearing.

An investigation of the pair began in April 2017 when the owner of Guaranteed Abstract Corporation, who is Rimer’s father, went to Upper Moreland police to report a theft from his company. The victim told police that Rimer, who had been employed as the office manager at the company for 15 years, approached him and stated that she had written unauthorized checks to her husband, according to the criminal complaint filed by Upper Moreland Police Officer William J. Gershanick.

“Rebecca said that she had written many unauthorized checks to Byrne from the company’s escrow/settlement account,” Gershanick alleged.

A forensic audit subsequently revealed that Rimer had written 223 checks, totaling $785,037, between October 2015 and April 2017 and that all the checks were made out to Byrne.

“Rebecca admitted to her father that she had written all of these checks to pay for her husband’s gambling debt. Rebecca, with her attorney present, later provided a voluntary statement admitting to all of the unauthorized checks that she had written,” Gershanick alleged in the arrest affidavit.

Byrne also provided a voluntary statement to investigators.

“Joseph Byrne acknowledged that all of these checks had been cashed to cover his gambling debts,” Gershanick wrote in the criminal complaint.