FORMER DOT ENGINEER ADMITS TO FALSIFYING TIMESHEETS TO STEAL $20,000 IN OVERTIME PAY

TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a suspended engineer for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) pleaded guilty today to falsifying timesheets to steal nearly $20,000 in overtime pay.Harish Bhanderi, 53, of Newtown, Pa., who previously was suspended without pay from his position as manager of the DOT Roadway Maintenance, Engineering and Operations Section, pleaded guilty to an accusation charging him with third-degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Timothy P. Lydon in Mercer County. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to 364 days in the county jail as a condition of a term of probation. He must pay restitution of $19,905. He must forfeit his employment with the DOT and will be permanently barred from public employment. Bhanderi is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20.