Firefighters in a rural Hamilton County township couldn’t figure out why they had no funds to buy medical supplies for their ambulance.
Their property tax levy, bringing in about $220,000 annually for firefighting, should have been enough to cover the needs of the Wayne Township Volunteer Fire Department east of Noblesville.
They asked their longtime treasurer, Norman Burgess, to show them bank statements. He did.
It didn’t clear things up because the treasurer had been writing checks and using debit and credit cards while falsely indicating the withdrawals were for the department. Actually, the withdrawals were for Burgess' personal needs.
On Thursday, Burgess, 44, of Danville, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $139,550 in restitution to the department. He had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.