Lowell Parking Employee Pleads Guilty to Larceny Charges

WOBURN– A Lowell parking department technician pleaded guilty to larceny charges for stealing from the city’s parking kiosks, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan informed the public today.

Richard Neveu, 52, of Lowell pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to charges of larceny over $250 and breaking and entering into a depository.  Middlesex Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins sentenced the defendant to five years probation and payment of restitution.

A restitution hearing has been scheduled for May 28, 2013.

“Instead of doing the job he was hired to do, this defendant stole from residents and visitors to Lowell,” District Attorney Marian Ryan said.  “With this guilty plea the defendant has been held accountable for his actions and we can now move forward with the defendant’s payment of restitution.”

According to authorities, Neveu was hired as a full time parking kiosk technician by Central Parking System of Boston, a private company that maintained, repaired and collected revenues from the paid parking system on behalf of the city of Lowell.  The defendant’s primary responsibilities included maintaining parking kiosks and collecting the money from the kiosks for deposit in a local bank.  The defendant was the only person who accessed the kiosks except on rare occasions where another Central Parking employee filled in for him.

In September 2011, Central Parking hired an auditor to review and compare electronic kiosks reports with deposit records.  The auditor found numerous occasions where money was removed from the vault inside the kiosk but was not deposited in the bank.

The audit revealed that parking revenues totaling more than $37,000 had never been deposited in the bank.  The review found more than 200 missing deposits.  In November 2011, the director of the Lowell Parking Department and a Central Parking consultant confronted the defendant about the missing deposits and the defendant allegedly signed a document agreeing to pay the city of Lowell $14,000 in restitution for money deemed missing in 2011.  The defendant was fired from Central Parking.

In June 2012, the Lowell Police Department launched an investigation.  The defendant was indicted November 7 by a Middlesex Grand Jury.

The prosecutor assigned to the case is Assistant District Attorney Chris Tarrant.