By Ed Laikin
Newsday
NORTH BELLMORE, N.Y. — The North Bellmore Fire District’s office manager has been suspended without pay after he was accused of stealing $38,000 in district funds, officials said.
John Carbone, also a member of the Nassau County Fire Museum board, is accused of depositing an insurance check for the district into his personal bank account and then withdrawing the funds, fire district lawyer John Roesch said.
A spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney’s office said they are investigating the allegations against Carbone.
Carbone, a 25-year employee, earns $92,000 a year plus health benefits. He had been a commissioner in the North Merrick Fire District and past president of the Nassau County Association of Fire Districts.
Neither he nor his attorney could be reached for comment.
Roesch said the theft was discovered late last year during a routine audit by the district’s internal accountant.
The accountant found that a $38,743 check from Hartford Insurance had not been posted in the district’s account.
The check had been stamped: “For deposit only. North Bellmore Fire District general fund.” Carbone usually does the stamping, officials said.
“The check found itself deposited in John Carbone’s personal account and the proceeds were misappropriated,” Roesch said in a statement.
Fire district officials added that a full audit failed to find any other missing checks.
Carbone was hospitalized twice after being confronted with this information and was being paid on medical leave, the statement said.
Roesch said he was notified about the Carbone incident in January and referred the case to the district attorney’s office last Thursday.
Roesch said that Carbone was in the hospital then and could not be reached.
At a hearing Sunday of the board of fire commissioners, Carbone was departmentally charged with conduct unbecoming a district clerk.
For 10 years, Carbone served as treasurer of a fundraising group for the future Nassau County Firefighters Museum. Since it opened two years ago, Carbone has served on the museum’s board of directors.
As president of the Nassau County Association of Fire Districts in 2005, Carbone collected the group’s checks and turned them over to the treasurer, officials said.
“This is tearing us apart,” said North Bellmore fire commissioner and museum board president Angelo Catalano.
Catalano added that Carbone has repaid $3,000 of the money and his family planned to take out a loan and make full restitution.