Accountant Sentenced for Robbing Charities

A former Oxnard accountant has been sentenced to nine years in state prison for embezzling more than $1 million from two charities that raise money for mentally disabled residents.

Paul E. Peachey, 61, owned a company that for 18 years provided accounting services for thrift stores run by the Foundation for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County and the Santa Maria Assn. for the Retarded Foundation.

His responsibilities for the charities included bookkeeping, payroll management and issuing checks, authorities said.

From January 1997 to November 2000, authorities say, the owner of Peachey Accounting Service altered checks made out to him or his company and used some of the money to build a 5,400-square-foot home on 20 acres in Tulare County.

Peachey, who was arrested after one of the charities noticed a problem in its books, initially denied the charges. But he later pleaded guilty to three counts of felony grand theft and one count of income tax perjury, admitting that he signed false tax returns.

On Friday, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark ordered Peachey to pay $880,000 in restitution to the Foundation for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County. The charity discovered losses that exceeded $800,000.

Peachey was also ordered to pay $277,589 to the Santa Maria association and $21,441 to the state Franchise Tax Board.

To recoup losses, the Foundation for Retarded Citizens reached a civil settlement in which the Tulare County house and other assets were turned over to the group.