Bank Employee Gets A Year In Jail For Stealing Thousands From Santa Clarita Valley Wells Fargo Customers

SANTA CLARITA (CBSLA.com) — A 25-year-old bank employee was sentenced Friday to a year in county jail and three years of probation after admitting to stealing thousands from Wells Fargo customers in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Samuel Jose Godinez, who was also ordered to pay nearly $25,000 in restitution to Wells Fargo Bank, was immediately taken into custody Friday to begin serving his sentence, Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Greenberg said.

Prosecutors say Godinez used customer bank information to steal thousands of dollars from two people between January and April 2014, including $16,000 from an 81-year-old woman.

Godinez entered an open no contest plea on Nov. 14 to two counts of grand theft of personal property and one count each of non-sufficient fund check/multiple checks and theft from an elder. An open plea is one where there is no settlement agreement with prosecutors, officials said.