CONCORD – A 25-year-old Hollis woman is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to committing wire fraud and embezzling more than $350,000 from a network of Gold’s Gym fitness clubs in Nashua and five other communities.

Nikki Donovan, who previously managed payroll records for the gyms, inflated her salary over a period of about 30 months, between January 2011 and July 2013, according to court documents.

She worked at that time for a consortium of businesses in Nashua, Manchester, Merrimack, Milford, Goffstown, and Hudson, owned collectively by two entities.

Donovan falsely reported the number of hours she worked for the health clubs when she compiled weekly payroll reports and submitted them to a payroll company in North Reading, Mass., according to court documents.

Donovan reportedly confessed to stealing money from her former employer during a taped interview with a Nashua police detective on Sept. 13. Donovan allegedly told the officer she used about 80 percent of the money to buy Percocet, a painkiller to which she was addicted, and to receive treatment to get off the drug. The remainder went toward debts, including student loans, according to court documents.

The overpayments to Donovan weren’t discovered until early August 2013. Owners of the health clubs decided to hire a new payroll manager a short time before. The move prompted Donovan to resign because she believed her embezzlement scheme had been discovered, according to court documents.

One of the health club owners then contacted Donovan for more information when the new manager uncovered evidence of the payroll errors.

Prosecutors say Donovan replied in a text message that she “knew this day was going to come.”

“There is literally no one else involved in this,” Donovan wrote, according to copies of her text message reproduced in court documents. “No one else even knew. And it went toward bills and debt that I couldn’t pay, and toward all aspects of my addiction. Getting the drug at first and then getting the medicine I needed to get off the drugs. It went towards an outpatient program that I went to start the process of getting clean.”

Donovan agreed to waive her right to bring the matter before a grand jury and pleaded guilty to an information charging her with wire fraud.

In exchange, court documents show, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing guidelines.

Donovan is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17.

Jim Haddadin can be reached at 594-6589 or jhaddadin@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Haddadin on Twitter (@Telegraph_JimH).

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