Faulty payroll claims lead to arrest Etna man allegedly used phone-in reports to get paid when he wasn’t working

Miguel Gonzalez, 31, of Etna had been submitting his weekly work hours to the temp service since last spring and even in October began taking advantage of a toll-free number to confirm his work week and allow him to get his paycheck by mail.

The problem was, as ADECO officials discovered, Gonzalez stopped working in June.

On Tuesday, Gonzalez was confronted about the $19,484 the Bangor job service company had paid him since June and he confessed to fabricating his work schedule, reported Bangor police Officer Paul Colley. Gonzalez faces the felony charge of theft and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 26.

Gonzalez had been sent to work at General Electric in Bangor in March 2000 by the temp service and through September had submitted time sheets. The time sheets were signed by a supervisor at GE that didn’t exist, the job service company later learned.

From October until recently, Gonzalez used a toll free number to confirm his work hours and his identification and his paychecks were sent to him in the mail.

The deception was noticed this week while the job placement service was reviewing its temp employees and learned that Gonzalez hadn’t been working at GE since about June 2000, according to the police report.

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When one Fleet Bank branch wouldn’t deposit a check for him Tuesday, 21-year-old Nicholas Swoboda, of Bangor tried three other Fleet branches in the city and then tried his luck at a fourth branch in Brewer, where he was ultimately arrested.

The checks he tried to deposit or cash were stolen, according to police and Swoboda has an extensive history of such check-cashing schemes, particularly at Fleet Bank branches.

Apparently recently released from jail, Swoboda faces charges of possession of stolen property and violation of bail conditions. Bangor police Officer Catherine Rumsey reported that those charges are being reviewed and may be upgraded.

Both checks were tuition refunds to two Bangor women, one amounting to $1,636, the other $525. Swoboda tried to deposit the larger check at the Fleet branch on Exchange Street soon after the branch opened Tuesday. He was declined because he couldn’t provide two forms of identification.

A bank security official who reviewed the surveillance recognized Swoboda and issued an alert to the other branches. Swoboda went to bank branches on Union and outer Hammond streets as well as on Broadway, the security official reported.

Then at 3:30 p.m., Swoboda was spotted in the drive-through at a Brewer branch, where the teller stalled Swoboda until Brewer Cpl. Chris Martin arrived. Swoboda tried to cash the $525 check in Brewer and when he was taken to the Bangor Police Department told Rumsey that he had torn up the first check after he couldn’t cash it.

Swoboda refused to talk about the second check, but told Rumsey that he had found it in an envelope on the ground on Adams Street, claiming it must have “blown” out of the mailbox. Finding the check inside and needing money for his drug habit, Swoboda told Rumsey, he tried to cash it.

At the time of his arrest, Swoboda was out on bail from a Jan. 6 arrest in Bangor when he was charged with forgery and receiving stolen property, Rumsey said.

– Compiled by NEWS Reporter Doug Kesseli