A Temecula bookkeeper accused of embezzling $1.6 million from the Oceanside
dental office where she had worked pleaded guilty Monday to theft, a prosecutor
said.

Victoria "Vicki" Lee Wafford, 50, agreed to plead guilty to one count of grand
theft by an employee and an additional allegation that she stole more than
$500,000, Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said Monday.

In exchange, Wafford will be given eight years in prison when she is formally
sentenced Nov. 4.

Wafford's attorney said prescription drug addiction was to blame for her
actions; the victim, dentist James Hargas, said he believes the motivation was
gambling at casinos.

The former bookkeeper had faced 60 counts related to embezzlement, theft and
prescription drug fraud.

Had she gone to trial and been convicted on all counts, Wafford could have been
looking at a sentence of nearly 48 years, Winn said.

Wafford was accused of writing more than 1,000 checks from her employer's
account to herself and credit card companies from 2001 to 2008.

In the accounting books, however, Wafford had listed the payees as dental
suppliers and other vendors, according to a document Winn filed with the court
in February.

Hargas said Monday that he had to borrow against his personal assets three times
to make payroll and vendor payments as the number of thefts increased.

"And she knew I was using my personal credit while she wrote herself more
checks," Hargas said.

Wafford started working for him in 1992.

The quality of patient care was never affected by Wafford's theft or his
financial concerns, he said.

Protecting patient care "is why I went into personal debt," Hargas said.

Prosecutors accused Wafford of forging Hargas' name with a rubber stamp or
similar device.

"I thought I was looking at my QuickBooks and journals and signing every check,"
Hargas said, "but she had her own check supply and rubber stamp."

The theft came to light in the summer of 2008, the dentist said, when he
launched an extensive audit of the books to get personal loans to cover business
expenses.

He said Wafford had been giving cooked books to his accountant.

"All small-business owners have to be wary," Hargas said. "I had checks and
balances, but this came from my devoted bookkeeper through manipulation of
checks."

Hargas said authorities told him the woman had gambled away much of the money at
casinos.

Wafford's attorney said his client's theft was motivated by an addiction to
prescription drugs.

"She's been addicted for years," Vista defense attorney Herb Weston said. "There
was an injury that started it off, and it just grew out of control."

According to court documents, Wafford was accused of going to a number of
pharmacies with falsified prescriptions for hydrocodone, a narcotic used to
treat pain.

Her guilty plea does not include any admissions regarding the alleged
prescription fraud.

Beginning sometime in January, OraTec will begin using Xylitol in lieu of
saccharin in TheraSol. We've been working on the reformulation for months and
it's finally ready for prime time. Production will begin the changeover in about
6 weeks. TheraSol with xylitol should be in stock and shippable in about 8
weeks.

You might be interested in what went on behind the scenes in making the decision
to switch. It wasn't as easy as you might think. There are two main ingredients
TheraSol, 1) ethoxalated tertiary amine, and 2) capra/caprylamidopropylbetaine.
While both molecules are powerful antimicrobials, have also have a slightly
bitter aftertaste. Some sweetener is needed to neutralize the bitterness. Until
now, that sweetener was non-nutritive saccharin. Xylitol, however, has some
attractive properties beyond it's use as an alternative sweetener.
Infortunately, also a lot more expensive than saccharin. It costs more per pound
and it takes 4X as much xylitol to get the equivalent sweetness of saccharin.

Antimicrobial activity aside, xylitol would significantly raise the production
cost and add to the retail price. Price being such an important consideration
when practices decide which products to buy, we were reluctant to raise
professional prices. Marketing was doubtful that many customers would be willing
to pay a premium to have xylitol instead of saccharin. You'll be interested to
know that Amy's Listers were very influential in our deliberations. The xylitol
research posted here on the List as well as the many positive comments were a
strong factor in our decision to switch to xylitol. In the end, OraTec has
decided to absorb the increased costs of using xylitol rather than pass them
along to our customers. We're confident that TheraSol with Xylitol will
encourage even more dental professionals to give it a try. We already know
they'll be pleased when they do.

Bill

One idea  is to go to a local pie shop and purchase gift certificates. Send them
to your "top 20" patients for Thanksgiving. WE did this one year and received
such a warm, positive response from those we sent it to. It was one less thing
they had to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner and all their family and friends
that came to dinner eventually found out that our dental office sent them this
pie. It became a win-win for all, because we eventually got some new patients
out of this kind gesture.

linda in Folsom who read this elsewhere.