NAPERVILLE MAN GETS FOUR YEARS FOR THEFT OF NEARLY $275,000 FROM EMPLOYER

WHEATON – DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that 41 year-old Michael Hayes (d.o.b. 4/15/1966) of 308 W. Bailey Road, Naperville was sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for stealing nearly $275,000 from his former employer, MidAmerica Bank in Naperville.  On December 4, 2007, Hayes entered a blind plea of Guilty to Theft in Excess of $100,000 in front of Judge Kathryn Creswell, who handed down today’s sentence.  The thefts took place over slightly more than a sixteen-month period.

            Today’s sentence stems from allegations that between March 2005 and July 2006, Hayes, who worked as a loan originator at Mid-America, would issue himself checks from an equity line of credit he had opened up for a bank customer.  Hayes would then either cash the checks or deposit them into his own personal bank account.   His scheme however, began to unravel when bank employees grew suspicious of Hayes’ activities and contacted the Naperville Police Department who launched an investigation into the matter. 

            “For more than one year Michael Hayes considered a line of credit he opened for a bank customer to be his own,” commented Birkett.  “His scheme however, caught up to him and thanks to the alert staff and leadership at MidAmerica Bank and the Naperville Police Department, Mr. Hayes is now a convicted felon who will spend the next four years of his life behind bars.”

            In addition to his sentence, Hayes was also ordered to pay $274,126.01 in restitution.

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