By Steve Marroni
The Evening Sun
LAHASKA, Pa. — The former chief of Midway Fire Co. and his wife, who were accused of stealing roughly $44,000 from the fire company, will spend seven years on probation.
Robert E. and Brenda J. Warner, 43 and 50 respectively, of 3005 Carlisle Pike, New Oxford, both pleaded guilty Monday in Adams County Court to one count of theft by unlawful taking, which is a felony of the third degree.
Their sentence was reached through a plea agreement with the Adams County District Attorney’s Office. In addition to probation, they are to pay $44,484 in restitution.
District Attorney Shawn Wagner said in court Monday that the couple stole the money from Midway Fire Company between January 2008 and January 2010 when Brenda Warner was the fire company’s treasurer. They failed to deposit proceeds from bingo games, and wrote out personal checks from the fire company, he said.
According to court documents, the current fire-company secretary, Luann Boyer, discovered in March 2010 that $35,000 in funds from bingo games were missing, and told police. She also told police she found that Robert Warner had charged $1,816 on the fire company’s gas card, which is normally used for fire company vehicles.
Additionally, she found 26 checks totalling about $26,000 that had been written for cash or to Robert Warner, according to court documents.
When Pennsylvania State Police at Gettysburg interviewed Brenda Warner in January, she admitted to taking cash from bingo events, putting it into a safe, and not depositing it as was fire company procedure. She said her husband then took the cash from the safe for personal use, court documents state.
Robert Warner was interviewed the next day, and said he and his wife were both responsible for taking the money without permission, according to court documents.
They were both originally charged with three counts of theft and two counts of criminal conspiracy.
The Warners are scheduled for sentencing Aug. 18.
Midway is located in Conewago Township.
The company was invited to join Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services, or SAVES, when it formed in 2005, but didn’t.
The company has been denied requests to be responders in McSherrystown and Conewago Township, but still runs bingo games and maintains its fire trucks.
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