Ex-Garner volunteer fire department employee pleads guilty to stealing $400,000

A former employee of Garner’s volunteer fire department was sentenced Monday to three to five years in prison for embezzling nearly $400,000 from the department.

Amy McKinley Moore of Garner was sentenced for obtaining property under false pretense.

Moore served as an administrative assistant to the fire chief for 11 years and was let go last year after an auditor discovered financial discrepancies.

Moore wrote 301 checks to herself from the department’s bank account from January 2003 to December 2009, totaling $393,949.56 and then recorded those in the account ledger as either money paid for operating expenses for fuel or not recorded at all, according to the indictment.

The former fire chief was not implicated in the crimes, but he retired last July after the audit.

Matthew Poole, who was named as the interim fire chief and was officially hired for the position in December, attended the sentencing at the Wake County Courthouse.

He read an impact statement, where he addressed Moore and her crime, which has hurt the fire department’s reputation, he said.

“I told Ms. Moore about the trust she had broken and the public image she had tarnished,” he said in a phone interview. “We pride ourselves on the job we do. My firemen put their lives on the line to put out fires, and they had nothing to do with this.”

As she was taken away by deputies, Moore was unemotional, Poole said.

The town will receive $38,000 in restitution from Moore, as well as a $100,000 insurance claim, Poole said. The rest may be collected in a civil suit, he said.

Poole said he hopes the fire department will eventually win the trust of the town again.

Since Moore was charged, the town has a new contract with the fire department, which is a private, not-for-profit organization that receives funding from Garner and Wake County.

Under the terms of the new contract, three members of the department’s six-member board of directors will be appointed by the town. The department also agreed to have an independent bookkeeper conduct regular audits, adopt an anti-nepotism policy, open its monthly board meetings and make quarterly reports to the town council.