Condo manager jailed three years for $200K theft

LONGBOAT KEY — Judy Paul, a former manager at Sand Cay, a Longboat Key condo-resort complex, was sentenced to a three-year prison term in a $200,000 fraud case.

A Manatee County jury convicted Paul in July on charges of grand theft of more than $100,000 and of scheming to defraud in the amount of $50,000 or more. Manatee County 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Thomas Krug, in a sentence handed down Sept. 13, ordered Paul, 49, to pay $200,000 restitution to Sand Cay, in addition to the prison term.

Authorities allege Paul took about 50 checks made out to Sand Cay worth $216,000 from 2006 to 2009. She then used the money for personal use, according to a story in the Longboat Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. Paul's purchases included spa treatments, Victoria's Secret items, plane tickets and accessories for her Corvette, Sand Cay board member Bob Fisher says.

Paul was fired in 2010 after a routine audit revealed inconsistencies, the Longboat Observer reports. Prosecutors sought a 10-year sentence followed by 20 years of probation. Attorneys for Paul, who has been held in Manatee County Jail since her conviction, argued for a sentence of time served followed by 10 years of probation.'¨

Paul's attorneys are appealing the case, and Krug allowed Paul to post a $200,000 bond during the process. The conditions of the bond is that Paul must live in Ohio with her parents and not work in a job that handles money while her case is pending.