A Lyndhurst man who worked as a payroll clerk at a Bayonne book company was arrested for scamming co-workers out of $34,000 in vacation pay, police said.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
John Cribbin, 58, of Lyndhurst, was charged with theft, failure to make required disposition of property, and forgery when he was arrested on February 21st, according to Police Lt. Eric Amato.
The Bayonne Police Detective Bureau conducted an investigation into reports of thefts and forgeries from Bookazine Company, located at 75 Hook Road.
According to a report filed by senior officers of Bookazine on January 16th, several employees had complained that they had not received paychecks owed to them for unpaid vacation time.
An investigation into the allegations revealed that Cribbin, a former payroll clerk at Bookazine, had been keeping numerous vacation checks from employees and depositing them into his personal bank account after he endorsed the checks with forged payee signatures.
Authorities also learned that Cribbin continued to issue vacation checks to employees
that were no longer employed at Bookazine, again keeping the checks for himself.
The total value of money stolen is reported to be in excess of $34,000. Additionally, these incidents occurred during Cribbin’s term of employment between June 2016 and June 2018, officials said.
