Lowell Woman Sentenced For Stealing $182K From Animal Hospital

LOWELL, MA — A Lowell woman was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison for stealing about $182,000 from a veterinary hospital she worked for.

Sasha A. Saulnier, 33, was charged in Aug. 2019 and pleaded guilty in Jan. 2020 to six counts of wire fraud. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, two years supervised release and $182,827.68 in restitution.

Saulnier worked as a client relations specialist for an unnamed animal hospital from Oct. 2011 to Sept. 2018.

Her responsibilities included selling retail products to hospital customers. In a temporary supervisory role, she had access to management software and the ability to manipulate account transactions and accounting data, prosecutors said.

From March 2014 to Aug. 2018, Saulnier entered false refund transactions into the company's software and credited her own personal debit cards, prosecutors said.

"Specifically, Saulnier occasionally entered a fictitious refund for merchandise that was legitimately purchased by a customer, but never returned, and then credited the bogus refund to her own debit card," according to a news release. "Saulnier also fabricated refunds for wholly fictitious retail purchases that were never actually made, and then credited that amount to her own debit card."

To conceal the fraud, she used the accounts of inactive hospital clients, such as those with dead pets, and "test accounts" set up for training purposes, prosecutors said. She also gave herself fake discounts when she bought retail products, they aid.

In total, Salunier falsified roughly 482 transactions worth $182,800 in refunds and credits, which she used for personal expenses and trips to Las Vegas, New York City and the Bahamas, prosecutors said.