ALLEGAN, Mich. — A former Perrigo employee who stole hundreds of items from work and sold them on eBay for a fraction of their value has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $435,000 in restitution to the pharmaceutical giant.
Items taken by 53-year-old Laura Arlene Barnett include glue guns sold at 75% discounts. She used the money to buy household items and trips to Florida and Hawaii.
Barnett, who has no other criminal history, “is extremely ashamed and remorseful for breaching Perrigo’s trust,’’ her attorney wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The felony charge of interstate transportation of stolen property carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Barnett, who lives in Allegan, pleaded guilty in August. A federal judge this week sentenced her to a year and a day in prison.
She was hired at Perrigo in 2004 and worked in the company’s maintenance department. From at least April of 2015 until October of 2017, Barnett stole more than 470 items of equipment, parts and supplies.
One example listed in federal court records was a $1,929 Nordson glue gun sold to a buyer in Canada for $441. Other items went to Indiana.
“She did not buy luxury cars or jewelry but did use the money for household expenses and to help others,’’ defense attorney Michael D. Hills wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Some of the expenses included helping her sister and her three children.
“By way of example she indicates she would buy each three or four pairs of shoes instead of just one,’’ Hills wrote. “She would later learn through therapy that she was a compulsive shopper.’’
Barnett also financed trips to Florida and Hawaii to visit family members.
“Through this spending she was building large credit card debt and trying to pay it off with some of the money from Perrigo,’’ Hills wrote.
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