Mother and daughter arrested for embezzling more than $550,000 from Carpinteria business

May 15, 2025

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday arrested a mother and daughter duo who allegedly embezzled more than $550,000 from a Carpinteria financial services business over a a period of nearly 20 years.

In February, detectives began investigating a report of theft from a business in the 6100 block of Carpinteria Avenue. Over the course of the investigation, detectives determined that Delia Guerrero, 63, had been embezzling money from her employer dating as far back as 2006. Detectives also learned Guerrero’s daughter, 43-year-old Delilah Strother, was involved in the theft, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

On Wednesday, sheriff’s detectives, along with Oxnard police officers, served a warrant at a home in the 2000 block of Pamela Street. Authorities took both Strother and Guerrero into custody at the Oxnard residence.

Deputies booked the suspects at the Santa Barbara County Main Jail on felony charges including embezzlement over $400, grand theft, conspiracy, false impersonation and aggravated white-collar crime with a loss of over $100,000. Strother and Guerrero are each being held in jail with their bail set at $750,000.

 


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Always have a backup bookkeeper. You have to watch the watchers. How many times have we seen this? The business owner becomes comfortable with the bookkeeper as she slowly and quietly steals him blind.