
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994                    TAG: 9406010527 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940601                                 LENGTH: CHESAPEAKE

FORMER NO. 2 MAN AT CITY GARAGE ADMITS FRAUD \

{LEAD} The former No. 2 man at the City Garage on Tuesday admitted cheating the city of thousands of dollars. His plea ends an investigation that began two years ago and that brought the top two garage employees into Circuit Court to answer fraud charges.

Willie L. Strickland pleaded guilty to signing off dozens of fake invoices for bogus repairs on sanitation trucks. Strickland, 70, was originally indicted on two conspiracy charges and an embezzlement charge. The commonwealth's attorney accepted a plea agreement in which Strickland admitted to one count of conspiring to obtain money by false pretenses between 1987 and 1990. The other charges were dropped.

{REST} The scam involved Strickland taking money from two businesses contracted to install windshields and alternators on city vehicles. He got the contractors to bill the city for the bogus repair work. Strickland then signed the invoices and the city reimbursed the contractor.

Graham Sumner, an employee at Tidewater Glass, and Sebastian Ranno, an employee at Battlefield Auto Electric - which has since changed owners - told investigators that they and Strickland cheated the city a total of 40 times between 1987 and 1990. No charges have been filed against Sumner and Ranno.

One truck was billed for 10 alternators, five in one month, authorities said. Another truck was billed for 10 windshield replacements and seven alternators. In the three-year period Strickland was a supervisor, there were 124 invoices for windshield replacements and 118 invoices requesting new alternators for 36 vehicles, authorities said.

The No. 1 man at the garage, George McCoy, was found not guilty in February 1993 of stealing a scrap engine block that belonged to the city. Judge Robert S. Wahab, a retired Virginia Beach judge called in to hear the case, ruled that the engine block was no loss to the city because it was taken from a junk pile.

Strickland's plea agreement calls for a punishment of 100 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. Though the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison, sentencing guidelines call for no jail time because Strickland has no criminal history, said prosecutor G. Jeffrey Mason.

Mason cited Strickland's declining health and having a case based on the testimony of Sumner and Ranno, who took part in the scam, for the plea agreement.

``Our motivation was to get a conviction, especially in light of McCoy's acquittal,'' Mason said.

Judge E. Preston Grissom will decide whether to accept or reject the plea agreement on Aug. 15. If he rejects it, Grissom could stiffen the sentence or allow Strickland to ask for a jury trial.

{KEYWORDS} FRAUD CHESAPEAKE CITY GARAGE

by CNB