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Former Niles assistant treasurer pleads guilty to theft in office
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Phyllis J. Wilson, who stole $142,772 over 41/2 years as Niles assistant treasurer, has pleaded guilty to theft in office and may have all of her retirement benefits garnished to repay the money.
Wilson, 62, of Russell Avenue in Niles, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
She will be sentenced in about four weeks, and Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, has asked that she serve prison time of up to three years.
Wilson “should be sent to prison because [her] conduct is more serious because the [city] suffered economic harm as a result of the offense,” Becker said in the plea agreement Wilson signed.
He added that Wilson’s conduct is serious because she violated a position of trust in the community.
Becker said he will ask Judge Andrew Logan to garnish “her entire net monthly [public employee retirement system] benefit of $1,176 until the restitution is paid in full.”
A state audit said she took the $142,772 between January 2009 and the point when she retired in June 2013.
A routine audit conducted by Ohio Auditor David Yost’s office uncovered the theft. The state auditor’s office said in December that Wilson’s theft was one of a series of problems it found during the audit of the city’s finances for 2012.
Yost’s office said one reason Wilson was able to get away with the theft for so long was that Wilson worked without enough oversight from her boss, Niles Treasurer Robert Swauger, or other officials.
The treasurer’s office needed a better “segregation” of duties, the 2012 audit said, adding that Wilson “had complete control” over collecting money, depositing it and reconciling the money paid by customers with the money deposited.
In an interview, Swauger said of that finding, “There were checks and balances that obviously failed,” but that weakness has been fixed by having people from other departments review receipts.
In October, Yost’s office also placed the city in fiscal emergency, with Mayor Ralph Infante saying he believes the reason is because of the $2.7 million deficit in the city’s water fund.
The city relied on paperwork and had no computerized accounting system in 2013, when the thefts were discovered, but the city purchased computerized accounting software last August.