Ex-Gibraltar Official Sentenced to 120 Days for Embezzlement

The former vice president of a North Hollywood financial institution was sentenced Monday to 120 days in jail for embezzling $79,000, which he used to install a swimming pool and buy paintings for his Agoura Hills home.

Michael Boulton, 43, also was ordered to repay the money and was placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service. Boulton, who turned himself in to police in January, had pleaded guilty in San Fernando Superior Court to grand theft by embezzlement and faced a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Prosecutors asked Judge Meredith Taylor for a six-month sentence. The county Probation Department recommended that Boulton be placed on probation. Deputy Dist. Atty. Sue Bilus said arguments for the lighter sentence included Boulton’s lack of a criminal record and his standing as a productive, educated member of society whose new job would be jeopardized by a long sentence.

According to court documents, Boulton used about $75,000 belonging to Gibraltar Savings to hire a Van Nuys contracting firm to build a swimming pool in his back yard in fall, 1988. He also used more than $4,200 of the bank’s money to buy three paintings for his living room in May, 1988.

In his capacity as corporate vice president, Boulton could authorize payments for goods, services and labor for the bank, and used those checks to pay for the personal items, court documents show.