Head of Crime Scenes Unit charged in spare parts scam
It was last June that reports first broke involving former Police Constable, Leroy Kerr, accused of purchasing nineteen thousand gallons of fuel worth over a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars under the Department’s name for his own personal gain. This time a civilian employee of the police department, head of the Scenes of Crimes Unit, forty-two year old Carlos Mencias, has been charged with wrongdoing. Officer in Charge of Eastern Division, A.C.P. Allen Whylie, says it’s clear how the scam became possible.
A.C.P. Allen Whylie, O.C., Eastern Division
“Mr. Mencias is a civilian employee. He is not a police. He is the head of the Scenes of Crimes Unit. As the head he was authorized, through the government system, to sign on behalf of his unit or to make various requisitions for items in order to get his input functioning. The system in place was there is an indent form, as the head he would sign those forms and then those would go to the accounts section. It would be processed and once the funds were available within the accounts then it would be processed thought the smart stream system because it’s a computerized system and eventually a release would be made by the treasury department. The person who he had those things made out would eventually go pick that check, cash it and give it back to Mr. Mencias in cash. The system was breach because of the fact that as the head he was authorized to sing for his unit so as the head I would not have seen or knew what he was doing because it is a computerised system. The accounting section, I must say, brought the one to my attention last week and I was aware that that vehicle that he was those requisitions for had been involved in an accident the Friday before. So obviously I realised something was wrong and I immediately ordered a full investigation and that investigation reviled that Mr. Mencias was guilty of these acts that he did and therefore we took immediate action.”
Mencias is charged with five counts of Obtaining Property by Deception over the last five months. The amount involved in this latest racket was just over seven thousand dollars. Mencias appeared in Magistrates’ Court, was released on ten thousand dollars bail and will reappear in court in January. Whylie said the incident occurred as the department upgraded its technology and people like Mencias were put in charge of their individual sections. Now all requests for vehicle parts must be approved by the chief mechanic. If the repair requires outside work, then the o.k. will come only from Whylie himself, his second in command or the officer commanding the particular unit.
