PARIS – A Superior Court judge has postponed a court date for the former Bethel Rotary Club treasurer accused of stealing $50,000, partly to give him more time to earn money at his new job.

At his hearing in December, William Craig Alford, 48, plans to plead guilty to embezzling club funds from 2002 to 2006, according to a document his attorney, Alan Perry, has filed at the Oxford County Superior Court,

Perry filed a continuance request Thursday at the court arguing that Alford needs to work to pay overdue bills and to make enough money to support his family if he is sentenced to jail. In August, Alford was hired as a director of systems development at Martindale Associates Inc., a company based in Bradford, Mass.

Perry also claimed that neither Alford’s psychiatrist nor his employer could make the hearing Thursday at the Paris court, but that the two would like to testify on his behalf.

Justice Robert E. Crowley granted the motion to postpone Alford’s plea hearing to Dec. 4.

Perry did not return a phone call to his office, and Alford’s wife, Debra, refused to comment when reached by telephone Thursday.

In Alford’s court file, Perry writes that Alford has repaid the club $66,000 by liquidating his and his wife’s retirement accounts, draining his savings accounts and their 9-year-old son’s college tuition account, and borrowing money from Debra’s family.

Cynthia Moran-Laux, president of the Bethel Rotary Club, verified Thursday that Alford had paid back the amount believed taken from the club. She declined to comment further on the case.

Perry said Alford was buried in debt.

His money difficulties supposedly started in 2002 when Alford’s household expenses and mortgage and credit card payments exceeded his roughly $4,500 monthly take-home pay by approximately $1,200 per month. Alford’s mortgage on his home at 9 Forest Drive in Bethel was $768.79 from 2002 to 2004, and it jumped to more than $1,000 in 2005 and 2006.

“When the credit cards were maxed out, Mr. Alford began taking Rotary Club money to pay the interest on the cards,” Perry wrote. “The scheme was not particularly devious – he wrote checks to himself and he made some small repayments.”

The missing funds were discovered in early 2006 by Rotary Club officials. Alford promised to pay back the money by April 11 without telling his wife and with the plan to refinance his home or obtain other loans, according to Perry.

When he could not repay the club, Rotary officials reported their suspicions to the Bethel Police Department on April 11.

Shortly after, Alford lost his position at American Ski Co. as director of systems for mountain operations. He had been with the company 12 years.