This Time Was a Record-Setter
A FORMER SOMERSET COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, VFD president was sentenced Tuesday after admitting that he had stolen $820,000 from his fire company. Henry Swincinski, 61, was president of the Windber Volunteer Fire Company from 2002 through 2010 when he pilfered the funds using his authority to access the bank account. He had been a member of the VFC for 35 years.
The Somerset Daily American reports:
Swincinski was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in Somerset County Jail followed by seven years of supervised probation for 56 counts of theft by deception, all third-degree felonies. He must perform 200 hours of community service when he is released. (He was also ordered to repay the FD $810,000 restitution…..ed.)
In February 2010 Paint Township police charged Swincinski with 974 counts in two cases that involved taking funds meant for the fire company and Northern EMS and putting them in his own pocket. The multiple charges were for the offenses of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received from 2002 through 2010.
When the department was suddenly not paying its bills, Swincinski blamed it on the "hard times" and told the members that they would have to hold more fundraisers and make more money.
The Windber Fire Company was organized in 1899.
Read the detailed report in the Daily American HERE.
Windber Fire Company WEBSITE.
* * * * * * *
