Faces new charge
Ex-cop indicted for grand larceny for allegedly using friend’s credit card.
Aaron Collington, a retired city police detective who avoided a prison sentence when he pleaded guilty to stealing money from his union, faces a new criminal indictment in Albany County after police said he ran up more than $25,000 in hotel bills by using a friend’s credit card.
Collington will be arraigned Friday in Albany County Court on a felony count of third-degree grand larceny, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if he is convicted. He is being held in the Rensselaer County jail on a charge of violating his probation.
Collington, 52, was a detective with the Troy Police Department and president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association. He was charged in October 2017 with stealing $6,200 from the union treasury. He retired from the police department and repaid the money as part of a deal to plead to
fourth-degree grand larceny and serve a one-year term of interim probation to avoid prison.
Collington used the union’s money to pay his rent, according to police reports.
Rensselaer County Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Hauf and Art Frost, Collington’s defense attorney, met with Judge Jennifer Sober on Wednesday on the violation of probation charge. Frost said another conference will be scheduled.
“He is very much interested in paying everybody back he has inadvertently harmed,” said Frost, who represents Collington in the Rensselaer County case.
The Albany County grand jury indictment came this week after
Colonie police arrested Collington in December 2020 when he checked in at the Rensselaer County Probation Office. Colonie detectives were looking for him after he reportedly ran up hotel bills of $25,549 on a friend’s credit card without permission.
Collington was supposed to stay at The Homewood Suites on Wolf Road for two nights – March 15 and 16, 2020 – that were paid for by a friend, according to police and civil court records. Collington told the friend he needed a place to stay temporarily due to a burst pipe, according to records.
That two-night hotel visit lasted for seven months, with the bill mounting to $25,459, according to court records. The bill for the first two nights amounted to about $262, according to court filings.
Besides his criminal cases, Collington is being sued in state Supreme Court in Rensselaer County by his friend for using his credit card. The friend is also suing the hotel company. He is seeking to recover $14,759 from the hotel and Collington. The bank covered the rest of the outstanding debt, according to court records.