Embezzlement Arrests Spoil Lush Lifestyle : Theft: At least $530,000 in cash and property is seized from young Laguna Niguel woman whose doting mother allegedly stole it from her employer.

Interior decorators said Priscilla Butler’s Laguna Niguel home was perfectly decorated for a young woman with charisma.

But police said the 22-year-old woman pursued her artistic visions and lavish lifestyle with hundreds of thousands of dollars embezzled by her mother.

Butler, who is unemployed, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving stolen property. Police seized a house she was in the process of buying, at least four vehicles and $180,000 in cash and checks.

Her mother, Betty Jo Sutton-Gibson, 41, of Ontario also was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of embezzlement and burglary. Both daughter and mother were being held at the Foothill Law and Justice Center in Rancho Cucamonga on $1 million and $500,000 bail, respectively.

The arrests came less than 24 hours after executives of Scheu Manufacturing--the Upland company where Sutton-Gibson worked as an accounts payable clerk--filed a complaint with Upland police, alleging that Sutton-Gibson had embezzled more than $1 million within the last year.

“I’ve been here 26 years and this is the largest case like this I’ve ever seen,” said Upland Police Chief Gary Hart. “It’s a flagrant example of greed.”

Upland detectives and Orange County sheriff’s deputies executed search warrants at Butler’s rented home in Laguna Niguel and at a Dana Point bank where she maintains an account. They seized at least $140,000 in cash and $40,000 in cashier’s checks from a safe deposit box at the bank, police said.

Detectives also seized another Laguna Niguel house for which Butler had made a $220,000 cash down payment, police said. Escrow for the $470,000 deal was scheduled to close Thursday.

At Butler’s rented home, for which she was paying $1,900 a month, police seized numerous items of art, clothing, furniture and several cars.

Included in the list of confiscated vehicles were a 1990 Porsche valued at $78,000, a 1990 Mercedes Benz worth $65,000, a 1989 Saab and a Jeep Cherokee. Other confiscated items included sculptures, an autographed Walt Disney plaque worth $7,000, new clothes still bearing price tags, about 100 pairs of new shoes, and even several cases of Evian water.

Police carted off the confiscated items in a 40-foot moving van late Wednesday night.

Detectives said that so far they have recovered at least $530,000 in cash and property. They are still trying to identify other “investments,” Hart said.

At a press conference at the Upland Police Department on Thursday, police told the story of a mother who was bent on satisfying the wants of her daughter whom they described as a compulsive shopper.

“The mother said she had a weakness for her daughter and she wanted to give her anything she (her daughter) wanted,” Detective Jeff Mendenhall said. “The daughter would spend and spend and spend. . . . The daughter said that if she saw something she liked she would have to have it.”

Mendenhall said investigations revealed that Sutton-Gibson provided her daughter with a $6,000 monthly allowance. During the last 3 months, Sutton-Gibson had deposited $110,000 in Butler’s account, he said.

Detectives who arrested Sutton-Gibson shortly after she showed up for work found an additional $80,000 in checks on her person, police said.

“She (Sutton-Gibson) said she was relieved (about being arrested),” Mendenhall said. “She said that since Saturday she had had a mother’s intuition that she would be caught and that she had not slept or eaten since then.”

The alleged embezzlement surfaced Tuesday when officials of the Upland branch of Chino Valley Bank telephoned Scheu officials to inquire whether the large amounts of funds being deposited in Sutton-Gibson’s account were legitimate, company President Allyn Scheu said.

“We quickly realized that it was not proper and that she was in fact writing checks to herself,” said Scheu, whose grandfather founded the company in 1911. The company employs about 90 people and manufactures mainly portable space heaters.

Sutton-Gibson erased the names of Scheu’s creditors from outgoing checks, wrote in her own name and then deposited the funds into her account, Scheu and police said.

Sutton-Gibson would then intercept the returned checks to ensure that company officials would not see that the money had been credited to her account, Scheu said. At a later date, she would send a second check to the rightful payee, he said.

Detectives said they believe that Sutton-Gibson transferred the money to her daughter’s account via automated teller machines.

“It’s sad and unfortunate. I have compassion for her and our employees whose profit-sharing was affected (by the embezzlement). There are no winners in this situation,” said Scheu, adding that Sutton-Gibson was known as “a good employee” during her 4 years of service with the company.

Neighbors in Laguna Niguel said Butler moved into the four-bedroom house with her cocker spaniel and golden retriever a few years ago. Butler and her house’s decor were recently portrayed in The Times’ Home Design section. Among the items seized by police were the expensive, soft-sculpture “people” photographed for the Home Design article.

Butler attended Saddleback College but is not currently enrolled in classes. She was once employed as a clerk at a Nordstrom department store but has not worked since May, 1988, police said.

Butler had spent the last few months at home preparing for her November wedding, neighbors said.

“She is a great neighbor . . . very generous,” said a woman who requested that her name not be used. “She went on a trip to Fiji and Hawaii and brought us back souvenirs. . . . When we asked, she said her mom paid for everything. My husband and I assumed that she inherited money somehow.”