KEN-TON: Probation for woman accused of stealing from Meals on Wheels
Staff Reports The Tonawanda News
A judge Wednesday ordered a former Ken-Ton Meals on Wheels director to write a check for $8,000, the first in a series of scheduled payments to the charitable group she pleaded guilty to defrauding.
Jean Bennett, 39, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty in January to spending tens of thousands of dollars of the charity’s money on lavish personal items. Like similar chapters around the country, the group delivers meals to the homes of people with trouble feeding themselves.
Once executive director of the Ken-Ton chapter, Bennett used a company credit card to for a string of purchases ranging from groceries to restaurant bills, movies, music and even a home theater system, according to a statement released by investigators earlier this year.
In Erie County Court on Wednesday, Judge Sheila DiTullio sentenced Bennett to five years probation and total repayment of $31,569 she took. Bennett was ordered to pay $200 more each month for the remainder of her probation.
She was officially charged with third-degree Grand Larceny Jan. 28, said a spokesperson for Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita.
Meals on Wheels board members brought their suspicions to Town of Tonawanda police last June, after taking away her credit card privileges. Upon researching credit card statements, Police Lt. Nick Bado concluded Bennett had disguised many of the purchases as either pertaining to official business or as approved under false pretenses.
She was fired in January, and the organization hired Amanda Crotty on May 26 to take up the role of executive director.
Mary Nixon, president of the group’s board of directors, attended the sentencing Wednesday. At the time Crotty was hired, she said the group had begun implementing new procedures to guide the way expenditures are approved.
“Now more than one person is watching the finances and there’s a system of checks and balances to make sure this won’t happen again,” she said at the time.
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