A Massachusetts correction officer used a debit card scheme to steal more than $6,000 from inmates’ personal accounts, authorities said.
Ronald Moloney, 50, of Peabody, was suspended without pay by the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office from his post at the Middlesex Jail and House of Correction after his arraignment Monday, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan alleges that Moloney issued fraudulent debit cards that were then used for personal purchases or cash withdrawals totaling $6,229. Moloney issued 93 debit cards himself and had eight cards processed by another staffer, Ryan said.
A probe into Moloney was launched in June after authorities received a request from an inmate who sought the transfer of his canteen money while being moved to another facility, prosecutors said.
Investigators later found that the money had been refunded through a debit card in May and had already been spent. But the inmate would not have been able to receive the debit card or spend the funds since he was incarcerated at the time, Ryan said.
Moloney then wrote a false report indicating that he mistakenly credited the money to a debit card for another inmate, but that inmate allegedly never received the money either.
Moloney, who has been charged with larceny over $1,200 and filing a false report by a public employee, also allegedly targeted dormant canteen accounts of inmates who had been released to avoid being detected.
The correction officer has been released without bail and was ordered to return to court on Jan. 17. A phone listed in Moloney’s name had been disconnected as of Thursday.
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