Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
The president of a volunteer fire company in Virginia has been charged with embezzling more than $373,000 over a three-year period. Virginia Hoskings has been charged by the Prince William County Police Department with stealing the funds between April 2016 and July 2019, while she was president of the Dumfries Triangle Volunteer Fire Department.
A big thank you to Kelly Paxton, who runs the Pink Collar Crime blog, for making me aware of the case. Kelly focuses on the little-known problem of theft by females. After meeting Kelly and comparing her experience with my data, a startling statistic emerged: over 27.5% of the embezzlement occurring in volunteer fire companies in the US is committed by females. That statistic is particularly alarming when one compares the relatively low number of females in the fire service.
Kelly suggests that all too often, men make a faulty assumption that women are somehow more trustworthy than men when in reality both genders are equally likely to steal. As a result, female thieves find it relatively easy to steal from an organization like a volunteer fire department, often without raising any suspicions. Kelly has made it her mission in life to bring attention to this problem. Please visit her site.
According to INSIDENOVA, Hoskins is no longer with the Dumfries Triangle Volunteer Fire Department. She is facing two felony counts of embezzlement. More on the story.
