TRENTON
– Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa
announced that a former auditor for the New
Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) pleaded
guilty today to falsifying audit records and
time sheets to cover up unexcused absences
and his failure to perform assigned audits
of private vehicle inspection facilities.
James
Pluchino, 52, of Manahawkin, pleaded guilty
to third-degree theft by deception before
Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in
Ocean County. The charge was contained in
a state grand jury indictment obtained on
Feb. 24 as a result of an investigation
by the Division of Criminal Justice and
the MVC’s Division of Security, Investigation
and Internal Audit. Deputy Attorney General
Peter Lee took the plea for the Division
of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that Pluchino be sentenced to up to 364
days in the county jail and a term of probation.
He will be required to pay restitution to
the MVC of $9,313 and will be permanently
barred from public employment in New Jersey.
Judge Daniels scheduled sentencing for Pluchino
for Sept. 14.
“This
state worker betrayed the public on two
levels. First, he collected over $9,000
in unearned wages by filing false time sheets
to cover up at least 40 unexcused absences
in a six-month period,” said Attorney
General Chiesa. “Beyond that, he failed
to perform his duties, which meant that
numerous private inspection facilities were
not audited to ensure that they were properly
inspecting vehicles.”
“The
MVC should be commended for its vigilance,”
said Director Stephen J. Taylor of the Division
of Criminal Justice. “Through criminal
prosecutions such as this one, we send a
strong deterrent message that we have zero
tolerance for dishonest public employees.”
In
pleading guilty, Pluchino, a former MVC
compliance officer, admitted that he did
not perform a large number of his assigned
audits of private inspection facilities
(PIFs) between March and August 2010. He
was assigned to a route that included 94
PIFs. He was responsible for providing vehicle
inspection stickers to the PIFs and auditing
their documentation to make sure all stickers
could be accounted for with corresponding
inspection records. Pluchino admitted that,
despite his failure to conduct numerous
audits, he falsely reported to the MVC that
he had completed the audits, and he submitted
computerized time sheets indicating he worked
on days when he did not perform any duties.
The
Division of Criminal Justice estimated that
Pluchino, whose annual salary was $62,661,
fraudulently collected a total of $9,313
for days that he did not work. He falsified
time sheets for at least 40 days when he
did not perform any duties. Pluchino resigned
in September 2010, prior to being charged
in this case, after 25 years of employment
with the MVC.
The
case was investigated for the Division of
Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau by Detective
Lee Bailey, Detective Shaun Egan and Deputy
Attorney General Lee.
The
case was brought to the attention of the
MVC’s Division of Security, Investigation
and Internal Audit (S&I) by MVC Inspection
Services Director Thomas Bednarz and Coordinator
Paul Giordano, who became aware that Pluchino
was not doing the PIF inspections he was
assigned during several months in 2010.
The matter was investigated for the MVC
by Investigator Stephen Crane, with the
assistance of S&I Chief of Investigations
James Clifford.
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