|
EAST SPENCER — A finance company agent came to the East Spencer Fire Department in January to repossess equipment, including a 1965 fire truck, that the department had used as collateral for a lease-purchase agreement.
Trouble was, the fire truck was long gone, sold for scrap metal at a salvage yard.
A subsequent inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation led to a grand jury indictment in April and criminal charges that former Fire Chief Steve Camp defrauded the finance company in September 1997 by submitting a $5,003 invoice to pay for parts and repairs on the same 1965 American LaFrance pumper-tanker.
Consolidated Financial Resources paid Camp’s auto and equipment repair business that sum, but the state contends there is no evidence of those repairs having been made or the parts purchased.
No court date has been set on the formal charge that Camp obtained property by false pretense.
Karen Biernacki, assistant district attorney for Rowan County, said Wednesday that the case is in a discovery phase, with the state making available information from its investigation to Camp’s attorney, James Davis.
Consolidated Financial Resources, based in Greenville, Texas, also has filed a civil suit naming Camp, former Fire Chief David Wray, present Fire Chief Jackie Stinson and the whole East Spencer Volunteer Fire Department as defendants. The company says the fire department has defaulted on the lease-purchase agreement and owes $53,259.22 plus attorney fees and costs.
The Post tried unsuccessfully to reach Camp and Wray at their homes and left a message for Davis, Camp’s attorney.
“I think the (public) record speaks for itself,” said L. Ragan Dudley, a Statesville attorney representing Consolidated Financial Resources.
Under the lease-purchase agreement, the town received 15 Scott Air Paks, five spare air cylinders, the 1965 American LaFrance pumper-tanker and a 1996 Lanier copier.
East Spencer town officials blame Wray and Camp for signing the lease-purchase agreement in July 1997 and putting the Fire Department in this potential financial fix. Wray was chief at the time and Camp deputy chief. Neither is with the department now.
The whole matter has raised the question of the town’s liability in the civil case, because Wray also served on the Board of Aldermen when he signed the agreement.
“There was no board action authorizing it at all,” Mayor Kenneth Fox stressed Wednesday. “He was acting as a volunteer fireman.”
Wray and Camp, as part of providing additional security on the lease-purchase agreement, signed a “revenue pledge.” It obligated any monies received from the town to the finance company, should the Fire Department default on its agreement.
Fox said the town is not obligated to pay the finance company. The company’s civil action says it should be “entitled to certain revenue from the Town of East Spencer pursuant to the revenue pledge.”
According to the civil suit, the East Spencer Fire Department never made a single payment toward the lease-purchase of the equipment. When an agent from a Jacksonville, Fla., firm went to East Spencer on Jan. 10, he was turned away.
“Members and firemen present at the location of the East Spencer Volunteer Fire Department refused to voluntarily allow the agent ... to repossess (the equipment),” the suit charges.
A flurry of legal action followed. The civil suit was filed in February. An entry of default against the Fire Department plaintiffs came in late April.
On May 4, the Rowan County Clerk of Court’s office issued an order of seizure in claim and delivery, giving Consolidated Financial Resources immediate rights to the 15 Scott Air Packs, the spare cylinders and Lanier copier.
The Fire Department complied with the order.
In late July, a Superior Court judge granted Consolidated Financial Resources’ motion to add the East Spencer Fire Department as a party defendant. The civil suit also is pending.
Alderman John Noble, the town’s liaison to the Fire Department, said he believed former Town Attorney Vernon Russell asked the district attorney to look into the matter, which led to the State Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry and Camp’s indictment.
The court documents and interviews conducted Wednesday fail to supply some answers. It’s not known exactly when the fire truck in question was sold for scrap metal. Mayor Fox believes it occurred in 1997 before he became a member of the board, and he described it as a “covert type of operation that manifested itself about a year after I got in office.”
Stinson, the present chief, said, “A whole lot of that stuff was covered up.” He could not pinpoint a time when the 1965 truck was scrapped.
“It was just a big mess,” Stinson added.
In April 1997, Wray told the East Spencer Board of Aldermen that Thomasville had donated a 1965 American LaFrance pumper truck to the town after aldermen previously had decided against submitting bids on two old fire trucks owned by Thomasville.
Wray negotiated the donation and said the East Spencer Fire Department would make the necessary repairs on the added truck. Wray said having the additional pumper was important toward trying to lower the town’s insurance rating and provide better premiums for residents.
A town official, who asked not to be identified because of the pending suit, said Wednesday that the truck wasn’t running when the town received it and, to his knowledge, never was put in operable condition. He assumed that it was listed in the lease-purchase agreement so the department could receive money toward the necessary repairs.
By October 1997, Wray and then Deputy Chief Camp were at odds, with Camp and other officers in the department calling for Wray’s removal as chief. Camp succeeded Wray, who also ran for mayor that November and lost.
Wray has not been involved in town business for the past two years.
In April of this year, the town board authorized the Administrative Committee to borrow $60,000 to purchase a $27,000 fire truck, $16,000 in air packs and a $7,500 Suburban.
The department now has eight new air packs. “We had to have them to stay in service,” Stinson said. Firefighters are waiting on delivery of the used 1981 mini-pumper truck and Suburban, which will be used by first-responders.
The new loan required a letter from the Board of Aldermen stating that the town will make an annual payment to the Fire Department for the new equipment.
The town’s 2000-2001 budget includes a $10,000 line item for the Fire Department for “loan repayment.” The town also pays $14,500 a year on a lease for a newer fire truck.
Stinson said he’s just trying to keep things together at the Fire Department and says he had nothing to do with the pending civil suit, though he’s named as a defendant.
“I try not to think about it, but it’s still there,” he said. “I’m in the clear, but I don’t want to see anybody go down for it.”
Fox stressed that Stinson had nothing to do with the lease-purchase agreement now under dispute. “Jackie’s doing a good job over there,” Fox said.
|
Today's News