Wood Dale bookkeeper guilty in $110,000 theft

A Wood Dale bookkeeper faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to embezzling more than $110,000 from two customers, including a senior citizen, prosecutors said.

Raimonda Uva, 36, of the 400 block of Victoria Lane, pleaded guilty in DuPage County court to two counts of felony theft and one count of financial exploitation of an elderly person.

Prosecutors said Uva stole more than $100,000 from a 76-year-old Bloomingdale man who hired her to keep the books for his heating and air conditioning business, and more than $10,000 from an Oak Brook widow who hired her for in-home bookkeeping services.

Uva made unauthorized withdrawals from her victims’ bank accounts on more than 50 occasions, prosecutors said, and used the funds to pay her own credit card bills.

The scheme, which took place from August 2008 to January 2009, began to unravel when one of Uva’s clients grew suspicious and contacted the authorities, prosecutors said.

“For more than three years, Raimonda Uva stole from those who had placed their trust and confidence in her, including a senior citizen,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a news release. “She lined her own pockets at their expense.”

Uva, who has a prior forgery conviction, could face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing June 29 before DuPage Judge Robert Kleeman, prosecutors said. She also is eligible for probation.

Berlin credited the Oak Brook and Bloomingdale police departments, along with state’s attorney Investigator Ray Bradford and Prosecutor Helen Kapas Erdman, for a successful investigation.