LIVERMORE FALLS – A former sewer clerk who town officials say admitted to stealing $102,000 from the Sewer Department is sorry and plans to do everything she can to repay the town, her attorney Alan Stone said Tuesday.
Faith Nichols, 35, of Livermore Falls resigned her position as sewer clerk last month after working for the Sewer Department and the town since the fall of 2003. It was the second time she had worked in the department, having resigned previously to pursue her own business.
“She is very sorry and sincerely apologizes for her conduct. She’s doing everything she can to make it right to the town,” said Stone, a lawyer with Skelton, Taintor & Abbott of Auburn, said. “She’s made a restitution payment and she’s going to work with the town to make restitution.”
She has repaid $20,000 of the money, he said. Selectmen Chairman Ken Jacques noted that repayment at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting.
Auditors from RHR Smith & Co. discovered the missing money after noticing errors in the sewer department’s record keeping while doing the town’s annual audit in September, auditor Ron Smith said Tuesday.
After further investigation, records appeared to be either missing or destroyed and receipts manipulated, Smith said.
His firm has recreated records and put together a list, as accurate as possible, of when sewer customers’ bills were paid.
“Their bills are paid,” Smith said of sewer customers who have paid.
Auditors are assisting the town with information so town representatives can call any residents from whom they need confirmation about payments, Smith said.
They believe the sewer department’s investments of more than $500,000 are secure and that the money missing is confined to the checking account of the sewer department, he said.
Smith, who called the actions of the former clerk “willful and premeditated,” said the former clerk has been very cooperative.
Selectmen acted appropriately after they learned of the missing money, Smith said. Getting an admission of guilt and getting $20,000 in restitution is “almost unheard of” in such a short period of time, he said.
Auditors and other town employees, including Treasurer Kristal Flagg, wouldn’t have been able to tell there were problems in the sewer department’s record keeping because the system was set up with the sewer clerk having oversight of the system.
Flagg said Tuesday that everything she was provided with by the sewer clerk always coincided with bank statements and the computer printouts.
Town officials have implemented Smith’s financial-practice suggestions to make the system more secure. Smith said more recommendations will be forthcoming.
Selectmen have hired an attorney and also have turned the case over to the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department for investigation.
Livermore Falls police contacted the sheriff’s department a couple of weeks ago because they thought there would be a conflict of interest in their investigating the case, Sheriff’s Capt. Raymond Lafrance said Tuesday.
Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. William Gagne is the lead investigator.
At this point, it is too early to determine what charges would be brought, Lafrance said.
Once the investigation is complete, which could take six months, it will go to the district attorney for review. If there are charges to be brought, Lafrance said, the case will go before a grand jury.
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