Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
A former Falls Township Fire Company official was sentenced Wednesday for stealing thousands from the organization that is tasked with protecting the community.
Former fire company treasurer and past president Christopher Carlin, 48, of Falls Township’s Levittown section, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft and repaid $36,896.59 in restitution at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown before Judge James McMaster on Wednesday. During sentencing, the judge also ordered the former official to have no contact with his former fire company and he will have to serve 175 hours of community service in addition to his probation.
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Carlin and former fire company official Gary N. Margerum, 61, of Falls Township’s Levittown section, were both charged by Bucks County Detectives in summer for misusing funds from the Falls Township Fire Company.
According to court papers, Carlin stole approximately $34,896 from the fire company and Margerum stole $11,197.
The investigation began after a fire company review of their records uncovered Carlin misused the organization’s credit card between September 2013 and December 2017. Additional probing by the fire company found that Carlin had more than $12,000 in checks issued to him by the fire company between December 2010 and October 2016, authorities said.
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In the fire company’s 2016 IRS Form 990 Schedule L, the filing included mention that Carlin had used the “organization’s credit card … for personal expenses.”
In addition to the individual misuse of funds, Carlin and Margerum co-signed a withdraw for $3,035 from the fire company account. The funds allegedly went toward the rental of a shore home in New Jersey.
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Margerum served as president of the fire company between 2009 and 2016. Carlin was treasurer and served as president in 2017 after Margerum resigned from the position due to a request from township officials and investigative reporting from news organizations, including LevittownNow.com. At the time of their arrest in summer, the Falls Township Fire Company confirmed that both men were longtime members of the fire company before their outsters.
The two men struck a deal with prosecutors in summer that would see the initial charges reduced to misdemeanors if the stolen funds were repaid, Deputy District Attorney Mark Furber said in August.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s office announced earlier this month that his team would audit the linked fire company relief association. While it is a separate legal entity from the fire department and receives funds through the government, relief associations can use their funds to purchase safety equipment, firefighting items, and supplies for their associated fire company.
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The auditor general’s office released a report on the relief association in 2017 that covers the period of January 2014 to December 2015. It found that the relief association handled funds properly and took “appropriate corrective action” to fix relatively minor past dificenies.
The Falls Township Fire Company Fireman’s Relief Association spent $346,890 to support fire company operations and volunteer firefighters in 2014 and 2015. The nonprofit had $110,498 in cash and $122,233 in investments as of December 31, 2015 while receiving $83,636 in state funding.
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Since discovering the theft from the fire company, a new team of volunteers has taken command.
