MAYS LANDING – An Egg Harbor Township man was arrested Friday afternoon by Somers Point police and Prosecutor’s Office Detectives and charged with stealing more than $500 from the Somers Point Volunteer Fire Company, Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said.
Wayne Bailey, 50, of Woodside Drive, was taken into custody late Friday afternoon and charged with one count of theft by failure to make required disposition in the third-degree. Bailey later was released pending further proceedings.
Somers Point Detective Jack Sementa conducted the investigation in early February with the assistance of Prosecutor’s Office Sgt. Joseph Pepe. It revealed that Bailey, a volunteer firefighter who served as chairman of the House Committee and Bar Committee for the volunteer fire company, wrote a number of checks to himself from its House Committee account and also took an undisclosed amount of cash from the bar operated by the fire company. Because the fire company is a private volunteer organization, none of the money allegedly stolen came out of public funds, Housel said.
The matter is pending presentation to the Atlantic County grand jury.
