Former Auditor for NJ Motor Vehicle Commission Pleads Guilty To Falsifying Records

A Manahawkin resident and former auditor and compliance officer for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission pleaded guilty June 11 to falsifying audit records and time sheets to cover up unexcused absences and his failure to perform assigned audits of private vehicle inspection facilities, according to an announcement this afternoon by the New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa.

James Pluchino, 52, of Manahawkin, who pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in Ocean County, for collecting more than $9,000 in unearned wages over a period of six months, will be sentenced to up to 364 days in the county jail and a term of probation, according to the plea bargain with the state. Pluchino will also be required to pay restitution to the MVC of $9,313 and will be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

The charge was contained in a state grand jury indictment obtained on Feb. 24 as a result of an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice and the MVC’s Division of Security, Investigation and Internal Audit.  Deputy Attorney General Peter Lee took the plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau.

 Pluchino filed "false time sheets to cover up at least 40 unexcused absences in a six-month period,” according to a press release by the Attorney General and "failed to perform his duties, which meant that numerous private inspection facilities were not audited to ensure that they were properly inspecting vehicles.”

Pluchino was responsible for providing vehicle inspection stickers to the PIFs and auditing their documentation to make sure all stickers could be accounted for with corresponding inspection records. 

 The Division of Criminal Justice estimated that Pluchino, whose annual salary was $62,661, fraudulently collected a total of $9,313 for days that he did not work, according to the press release. 

The case was brought to the attention of the MVC’s Division of Security, Investigation and Internal Audit (S&I) by MVC Inspection Services Director Thomas Bednarz and Coordinator Paul Giordano, who became aware that Pluchino was not doing the PIF inspections he was assigned during several months in 2010, the release said.