Frazer police accuse woman of using nursing home's credit card for $42K spending spree

Frazer police arrested a woman they say confessed to using a company credit card to steal more than $42,400 from the nursing home where she worked because, she said, they reneged on a promise to pay her bonuses for recruiting new employees.

Jennifer L. Ward, 48, of the 900 block of Thompson Run Road in Springdale Township was charged with one felony count each of theft and access device fraud.

She was released from custody on a $25,000 unsecured bond and faces a preliminary hearing on the charges before District Judge David Sosovicka on Aug. 15, according to court records.

Ward, who worked for Passavant Memorial Homes in Ross for more than 20 years, told police she was “fed up with the company” after they failed to pay her $20,000 in sign-on bonuses when she recruited two people to work for the home, according to a criminal complaint.

Attorney Thomas W. King III, whose Butler law firm represents Passavant, declined to comment on the allegation made by Ward.

Investigators were alerted to the thefts by nursing home officials who said Ward was one of only three employees they suspected of using a company credit card to make unauthorized purchases at Walmart stores in Frazer, Harrison, Richland and near Aspinwall, the complaint said.

Police said Ward used the credit card 64 times to buy gift cards, food, clothing, a sewing machine and several vacuum cleaners.

A number of the items and gift cards were retrieved from Ward’s home after police executed a search warrant, the complaint said.

Investigators said they were able to track down Ward by reviewing surveillance video from the stores that showed her using the credit card at checkout registers, as well as footage from cameras that captured the license plate on the vehicle she was driving, according to the complaint.

When police confronted Ward about the thefts, she told them she was able to use the credit card and bypass the requirement to get a purchase order approved by the company by taking the card from an office cabinet and then returning it by the end of her shift, the complaint said.

The purchases were made between April 28 and June 3, according to the complaint.