A one-time municipal accountant was sentenced May 31 to a three-year bid in the Worcester County House of Correction for having stolen nearly $1 million from four small towns he worked for, the attorney general’s office announced.
Justin Cole, 40, was employed as Uxbridge’s town accountant and stole $855,474 from the Worcester County town between 2012 and 2017 by submitting and approving dozens of false invoices that resulted in the town paying for services it did not receive.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said Cole used his company, Bay State Municipal Accounting Group (BMAG), to fraudulently obtain rent, software and equipment payments from the town of Uxbridge.
Upon stepping down as Uxbridge’s full-time town accountant in July 2017, Cole continued to defraud other municipalities through his BMAG business, which provided accounting and financial services to the towns of Monterey, Millville and Wenham.
Healey’s office said Cole made off with a total of $931,149 — $855,474 from Uxbridge, $24,597 from Monterey, $47,600 from Millville and $3,478 from Wenham.
“This defendant abused his position of trust to steal taxpayer dollars from Massachusetts towns for his own benefit. We are pleased to deliver justice on behalf of these towns,” Healey said.
Cole was declared a “common and notorious thief” and handed down his sentence after having pleaded guilty on May 25 to six counts of larceny over $250, two counts of larceny over $1,200, five counts of making false claims, four counts of securing an unwarranted privilege and one count of unlawful financial interest of a municipal employee.
The Office of the Inspector General had referred the case to the attorney general’s office.
“Towns across Massachusetts hired Justin Cole to manage and safeguard their finances,” Inspector General Glenn Cunha said. “Instead, he used his position to embezzle from them. My Office is pleased to have partnered with the Attorney General to bring him to justice.”
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