SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary : The Local Review / DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Bookkeeper Gets 7 Years for Theft From Doctor

A bookkeeper who stole $738,126 from a West Hollywood plastic surgeon was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum term of seven years in state prison, prosecutors said.

Xciomara V. Williams-Wilridge, 36, of Chatsworth, was ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen E. O’Neil to repay the surgeon for his losses in addition to $123,000 to the state Franchise Tax Board.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor M. Minjares said Dr. Richard Ellenbogen hired the defendant as a bookkeeper in November 1992.

Two months later, Minjares said, Williams-Wilridge began writing herself checks from the physician’s business accounts to pay off her own credit cards. The defendant also drew on credit card payments made by patients to pay her bills.

Williams-Wilridge laundered some of the stolen money through a beauty salon she bought in Los Angeles in 1995 called “Anointed Hands” and through several other bank accounts.

The thefts were discovered in January 1998 by an accounting firm Ellenbogen hired to investigate bookkeeping discrepancies, Minjares said.

Williams-Wilridge was convicted Aug. 4 of one count of grand theft and three counts of filing false state tax returns. Court records showed Williams-Wilridge was fired by another physician for stealing and had a 1991 conviction for collecting unemployment insurance while working for that Los Angeles-area doctor.