Granny Accountant Who Swindled $3.5 Million Tries Shopping Addiction Excuse In Court

A 62-year-old Huntington Beach grandmother hoped to avoid even a day in prison despite using her managerial accounting job at a Long Beach trucking and warehouse company to steal nearly $3.5 million.

Inside U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney's Santa Ana courtroom today, Patricia A. Francisco appeared neatly dressed and dignified, except when she quietly wept upon learning her alleged luxury shopping addiction excuse would not rescue her from lengthy incarceration.

"Shopping addiction is real," an impassioned Diane Bass, Francisco's court-appointed defense lawyer, argued as what she labeled "significant" mitigation for punishment reduction.

But a clearly unimpressed Assistant United States Attorney Brett A. Sagel noted that the thief's 16-year scheme diverted company funds to selfishly enhance her lifestyle, including:

--buying a house less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean; --spending $50,000 on remodeling; --purchasing a Huntington Beach condo near Beach Boulevard; --buying a new, $40,000 Cadillac Escalade; --collecting more than $300,000 in jewelry; --spending $30,000 on two plastic surgeries; --buying expensive shoes, clothes and handbags; --taking trips to Hawaii, Oklahoma, and, for gambling, Las Vegas' The Mirage, Excalibur and Monte Carlo.

"This was not impulse buying," Sagel said. "This was planning and anything short of the guideline [sentencing] recommendation [of 63 months in prison] sends the wrong signal."

But Bass continued her attack on the government's stance, urging the judge to consider that Francisco grew up with an overly-demanding, fireman father and her "most striking" feature: "how cooperative she has been" with investigating FBI Special Agents Paul Bonin and Brian Reilly.

Bass suggested no prison time so that Francisco can work as a esthetician. She also said her client's life already looks dismal because she will soon surrender her $619,000 retirement account to her victims as partial reimbursement.

"She will have nothing," the defense lawyer said. "She will be living in her daughter's basement in Oakland . . . It's not an enviable position to be in."

Sagel called Bass' position "disingenuous" and re-characterized the degree of cooperation.

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Granny Accountant Who Swindled $3.5 Million Tries Shopping Addiction Excuse In Court