West Chester Woman Charged with Embezzling $1M from Employer

A West Chester woman has been charged with embezzling more than $1 million from her employer, the Chester County District Attorney's Office announced Monday morning.

Joyce Hawkins, 59, of the 400 block of Caswallen Drive in West Chester, was the director of compensation and benefits for Modular Space Corporation, known as ModSpace, which has its corporate headquarters in Berwyn. As a senior-level employee, Hawkins earned more than $200,000 per year, the DA's Office said, but still stole money to support a lavish lifestyle, including a vacation home and two boats.

“This case is about greed, greed, and more greed," District Attorney Tom Hogan said. "The defendant was a highly compensated employee, but decided to abuse her position of trust to steal money from her employer. Her conduct is an insult to every person who does an honest day’s work and lives on an honest day’s wage.”

The District Attorney's Office said Hawkins began working for ModSpace in 2009. She created a dummy entity, "Caring Hearts LLC," and began directing payments from ModSpace to it, authorities said.

Between 2010 and 2014, Hawkins embezzled $1,035,763.55 from ModSpace using the scheme. She resigned her position in early April, with April 18 set to be her final day of work. The DA's Office said she attempted to embezzle an additional $122,510.56 before she left the company, but ModSpace discovered the suspicious activity and alerted authorities.

“A determined and trusted corporate insider can be very difficult to thwart," Hogan said. "ModSpace and their counsel did an excellent job of conducting an internal investigation and referring this matter to the District Attorney’s Office when they realized the nature of the fraud. The Chester County Detectives did the rest. Chester County is home to many businesses, large and small, and the District Attorney’s Office will crack down on any corporate fraud.”