CALABASAS : No Contest Plea by Condo Manager

A property manager used at least part of the $1.4 million he embezzled from a Calabasas condominium association to repay money he had previously stolen from a group of Santa Clarita condo owners, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Spencer John Gobus, 46, pleaded no contest to felony charges of forgery and stealing more than $1 million from the Oak Park Calabasas condominiums between Feb. 1, 1985, and July 31, 1993, and will probably be sentenced to six years in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan C. Fork said. Gobus’ Westwood company had apparently been hired by the condo association to manage the 268-unit complex on Park Granada in Calabasas.

An attorney for Gobus could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

In addition to entering his plea in court, Gobus also admitted to violating his 1992 probation stemming from a theft conviction in connection with an Old Orchard condo association in Newhall, Fork said. Gobus had been ordered to pay $45,000 in restitution to the homeowners association in that case.

“It turns out now we can see he used money from the Oak Park association to make restitution to the Santa Clarita association,” Fork said. “The two cases tied together.”

The members of the Calabasas condo association grew suspicious after Gobus failed to give satisfactory answers to questions about the association’s financial matters, authorities said. They subsequently hired an accountant who examined the association’s finances and found that Gobus had not filed tax returns for the association for 10 years and that he had opened several checking accounts without the association’s knowledge.

An investigation by Los Angeles police has failed to turn up any of the missing $1.4 million, authorities said. Under terms of the plea agreement, Gobus is likely to receive a six-year prison term when he is sentenced Oct. 19, Fork said.

Jan Reinglass, a homeowner and resident, said she was thrilled by Tuesday’s developments, but said she hopes Gobus receives a stiffer sentence than six years in prison.

“He deserves everything he gets and more,” Reinglass said. “He’s hurt a lot of people in this community, but we are going to recover.”