Melanie Debadts
/ photo from State Police
WOLCOTT -- A former village worker is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from taxpayers.
State Police have charged 35-year-old Melanie Debadts with grand larceny and 106 counts of falsifying business records. An audit from the New York State Comptroller's Office accuses Debadts of taking more than $68,000 over a four year period while she was clerk-treasurer for the Village of Wolcott in Wayne County.
"This clerk-treasurer had a creative imagination when it came to coming up with ways to steal taxpayer monies," said Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Investigators say Debadts got the money through extra payroll payments, unauthorized overtime payments, excessive health insurance buyouts, unearned leave payouts, overpayment of vital statistics fees, and payments that were inappropriately charged to the village's records management grant.
Debadts is no longer a town clerk. She was arraigned Wednesday and will be back in court on June 7th.
