A former supervisor in the Glynn County Department of Public Works has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

William Richards, 51, of Brunswick also was ordered to pay more than $420,000 in restitution of funds he illegally gained from fraudulent charges to government purchasing cards.

Richards, who began working for the public works department in 2010, was responsible for coding and reconciling purchases made with the department’s purchasing cards. The Glynn County Police Department and the FBI began investigating his activities last year when another agency employee noticed suspicious charges on his county purchasing card.

According to court records and testimony, Richards had been making fraudulent purchases with his card and those of other employees for more than two years by issuing payments to a fictitious company he created and then transferring the money to his own bank account.

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“Taxpayers rightly expect employees of their government agencies to handle public money responsibly,” U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg said Monday. “William Richards did the opposite by defrauding taxpayers and enriching himself at their expense, and he is being held accountable for his crime.”

Besides the prison sentence and restitution, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood also sentenced Richards to serve three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term.