Wadsworth Car Service of Staten Island pleaded guilty to grand larceny charges today for stealing $30,000 from the MTA’s Access-A-Ride program, which provides transportation to disabled New Yorkers. Wadsworth agreed to repay that sum and also forfeited $170,000 in payments from the agency. The cash-strapped MTA gave a sweet contract to the car service but Wadsworth returned the favor between June 2009 and January 2010 by submitting inflated bills, completely false invoices, and duped disabled residents into signing multiple vouchers at a time for the company to collect on. Some Wadsworth drivers even enrolled as Access-A-Ride customers as part of the rip-off. Perhaps Wadsworth drew the line at actually taking money from the pockets of disabled people.
