South Brunswick woman pleads guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from engineering company

A former office manager at the Roberts Engineering Group pleaded guilty this week to a charge of second-degree theft by deception.

Karen Thompson, 45, of South Brunswick, worked as an office manager and performed payroll functions for the Roberts Engineering Group in Hamilton from 2004 until 2017. This week, Thompson admitted to paying herself unauthorized reimbursements from January 2012 through April 2017 totaling more than $500,000. She altered computer records in the company’s accounting and payroll software to commit the theft, law enforcement officials said.

The state is recommending a three-year prison term and restitution in the amount of $516,714.77 to the company when Thompson is sentenced on Dec. 13.