Ex-Hospital Employee Guilty of Stealing $300,000 From Cafeteria Cash Registers

​A former executive assistant who stole more than $300,000 from cafeteria cash registers at a Fountain Valley hospital got a three-year prison sentence this week.

Bridget Dominique Ganier, 38, of Las Vegas, was also ordered to pay more than $306,000 in restitution after pleading guilty Tuesday to one felony count of grand theft by embezzlement.

She began working as a cafeteria secretary at the nonprofit Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in 1998, then was promoted to cafeteria executive assistant in 2003.

According to prosecutors, Ganier felt she deserved the vacant head cafeteria position despite her lacking the required qualifying credentials. The executive assistant position did charge her with supervising the daily cafeteria revenues and deposits.

Between September 2003 and June 2008, Ganier stole more than $300,000 in cash from cafeteria registers and deposited the money into her personal bank accounts, prosecutors told the court, adding that she altered cafeteria receipts and records to conceal the theft.

With that money, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Ganier spent the money on a lavish lifestyle including purchasing a new home in Las Vegas, rental homes in Orange County, multiple vehicles, jet skis, and other luxury items.

She was on one of her luxury vacations in June 2008 when hospital administrators discovered that cafeteria deposits doubled in her absence.

They called Fountain Valley police a month later.

Also in July 2008, Ganier was fired by the hospital. She relocated to her Las Vegas home.

During her last month of employment, the cafeteria revenue totaled $9,280. The month following her termination, the cafeteria revenue totaled $28,565.