Man draws probation for $11K theft from employer

NORRISTOWN >> A Bucks County man who admitted to stealing more than $11,000 from his onetime Whitpain employer avoided time behind bars by repaying his former boss in full.

Brian Keith Hurley, 51, of the 300 block of Bradford Avenue, Warrington, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to three years’ probation on a felony charge of theft by unlawful taking in connection with thefts that occurred over a five-month period while he worked for HDI Associates in the Blue Bell section of Whitpain.

Under an agreement at the time Hurley pleaded guilty to

the charge, prosecutors indicated that if Hurley paid the total $11,091 in restitution by his July sentencing date, then prosecutors would agree to a sentence of three years’ probation. Otherwise, Hurley, who was represented by defense lawyer Scott McIntosh, faced a sentence of 9-to-23-months

in jail, to be followed by two years’ probation, according to court documents.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill, on sentencing documents, indicated restitution was paid in full and he agreed to impose the probationary sentence against Hurley.

An investigation of Hurley began on March 26, 2018, when the owner of HDI Associates, located in the 1700 block of West Township Line Road in Blue Bell, reported to Whitpain

police that money had been transferred from his company’s account to an employee’s personal accounts without authorization, according to a criminal complaint.

The company owner told police that on March 22, he noticed that a company savings account was overdrawn and he immediately contacted his bank. The company owner and bank officials ultimately determined that $11,091 had

been transferred online from the company’s savings account to five separate checking and savings accounts belonging to Hurley.

The unauthorized money transfers, 59 in total, occurred between October 2017 and March 2018, according to the criminal complaint filed by Whitpain Police Officer Matthew Frank.

“Hurley worked for HDI for six years. (The company

owner) stated that Hurley was able to get access to the company account due to the fact that employees were permitted to buy products needed for work,” Frank alleged in the criminal complaint.

The company owner confronted Hurley about the thefts on March 22 and Hurley, who was fired from his position that day, initially denied the allegations. However, a day later, Hurley confessed to

the company owner that he took the money from the company account, according to the arrest affidavit.

Hurley, authorities alleged, did not have permission to use funds from the account.

Other charges of misapplication of entrusted property and computer trespass were dismissed against Hurley at sentencing in exchange for his guilty plea to the felony theft charge.