Utica, NY -- A Utica man who had in his possession thousands of dollars stolen over a six-year period from Syracuse parking meters pleaded guilty today in Oneida County Court. Ronald Mancuso, 48, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree in a plea deal. In exchange for his plea, Mancuso was promised that he...
Utica, NY -- A Utica man who had in his possession thousands of dollars stolen over a six-year period from Syracuse parking meters pleaded guilty today in Oneida County Court.
Ronald Mancuso, 48, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree in a plea deal. In exchange for his plea, Mancuso was promised that he would receive nothing greater than six months in jail and five years probation when he is sentenced Dec. 2.
Mancuso admitted at his plea that he had in his possession $300,000 in his Oneida County home that he knew was stolen.
Mancuso was the second man to make a plea bargain in the case this week.
Former Loomis, Fargo & Co. employee Sean McGuigan pleaded guilty Tuesday to the same charges and received the same plea deal, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Saba said today. McGuigan is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 11.
FBI agents seized $300,000 from Mancuso’s home and $22,000 from McGuigan’s home, court records state. About $12,000 of that was in quarters, one official said.
The money represents about half of the $700,000 alleged to have been stolen from Syracuse city parking meters in the scam, according to documents filed in a federal court case involving the Mancuso family’s illegal asbestos disposal operation in Utica.
Mancuso and McGuigan were not identified by name in that document, which said a Loomis employee and a partner copied a key to the parking meters, emptied the meters and deposited the money in their personal bank accounts.
The money seized by the FBI will most likely go back to Syracuse, Saba said.
“I believe it goes back to its rightful owner,” Saba said.