Milford businessman awaiting restitution for stolen heating oil Malenfant’s Fuel still owed most of $17,000 for missing product

MILFORD – A local businessman said Thursday he has not received most of the restitution owed to him after a Brewer man reportedly stole thousands of gallons of heating fuel from his company.

Of the nearly $17,000 in fuel that was taken, Mike Malenfant, owner of Malenfant’s Fuel and Bottled Gas Co. in Milford, said Thursday he’s received only about $2,000 in restitution from those who purchased the stolen fuel.

A previous Bangor Daily News story stated that most of the customers had paid restitution, but Malenfant said Thursday that’s not true.

“The people that received the most amount of fuel, none of them have been indicted yet,” Malenfant said. “I’ve got people coming up to me to say you finally got your money. No, we haven’t received much.”

Benjamin Tibbetts III, 30, was charged earlier this month with Class B theft, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for stealing fuel starting in October 2004 from Malenfant’s and selling it to customers at a significantly reduced rate.

Tibbetts was fired in February 2005.

Shortly after he was fired, Tibbetts allegedly stole a Malenfant’s fuel truck loaded with fuel oil and sold the fuel to several customers that day for $1 per gallon – much lower than the average price of $1.85 per gallon. The empty fuel truck was found at 3:45 a.m. the next day in Carmel.

Tibbetts and another man, Michael Gonsalves, 41, of Kenduskeag, were arrested in April 2005 on separate probation violations, but investigators believed they were responsible for the fuel thefts.

Tibbetts was believed to be the principal in the thefts, while Gonsalves lined up prospective customers, according to Michael Roberts, Penobscot County deputy district attorney.

Craig D. McPherson, 55, of Kenduskeag has been charged with receiving stolen property, a Class C felony, but no other recipients have been indicted at this time.

“I’m a little surprised at the amount [Malenfant] said he’s received, but ultimately there were only a few people who were involved to a level that I thought could have known it was a crime,” Roberts said Thursday. “There’s just no way to establish that they were aware that this was a stolen product they were receiving.”

Authorities estimate that as many as 25 people purchased fuel from Tibbetts, and in some cases, more than once.

Roberts said he would have estimated that Malenfant would have received somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 at this point because of the number of people the district attorney’s office has dealt with.

Malenfant said he’s only received money from four people who received the stolen goods.

“There’s at least one other person out there that we’re going to try and obtain restitution from,” Roberts said.

In addition, most of the reparation is going to have to come from Tibbetts, he said.