Former employer to felon: Pay up

STAMFORD — A Bridgeport man who was sentenced to 15 months in jail for stealing $115,000 from the owner of the gas station where he worked in Greenwich may see more jail time if he doesn’t come up with some “real” money to pay his former employer back.

A Stamford judge told Thomas Milne, 53, that he had better see a whole lot of cash by Oct. 3, when the felon is scheduled to return to court.

“I’m going to send your client back to jail if he doesn’t come up with some real money,” Judge Gary White told Milne’s defense attorney, Mark Sherman, during a hearing in a first-floor courtroom Thursday.

Milne was sent to jail by another Stamford judge in July 2011 after pleading guilty to a felony charge of first-degree larceny. A Greenwich police investigation determined that Milne, who was the manager of the Cos Cob Mobil, stole as much as $180,000 from the business between 2006 and 2010, when the station was sold to a new owner.

Milne later told police investigators he stole about $115,000 from the business, according to his 2010 arrest affidavit. As part of the conditions of his plea agreement that included a 45-month suspended sentence, Milne said he would make restitution to his former boss, who continues to struggle from the debt incurred by the money taken from the state lottery system in the gas station’s convenience store.

A year ago, Milne was charged with violating his probation because he had only paid his former boss $9,300 in the five years since his release from jail.

At this point, Milne owes $103,000, Sherman said.

But on Thursday, White said the $12,000 that Milne has repaid added up to less than 20 percent of his debt, even though the theft was discovered eight years ago.

“The victim gave this man a job and paid him well and he paid him back by stealing from him,” White said, insisting that the victim has received “essentially nothing.”

Supervisory State’s Attorney Paul Ferencek said the office of adult probation has noted for years that Milne was not paying off his debt. But Sherman told White that his client will come up with the money, but he would not be able to if he’s sent back to jail.

“He is trying his hardest,” Sherman insisted. “But jail is not the answer.”