Oil company auditor gets 5 months in prison

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — An accountant has been sentenced to five months in prison for helping a Waterbury heating oil company defraud Citizens Bank of millions of dollars.

A federal judge in Hartford on Tuesday also ordered 57-year-old Dale Ciccarelli of Southbury to pay $1.7 million in restitution to the bank. Ciccarelli pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax charges.

Prosecutors say Ciccarelli helped F&S Oil Company officials fraudulently obtain lines of credit from Citizens Bank by falsifying financial statements, including one used to obtain a $4.5 million line of credit in 2006.

Ciccarelli's lawyer, William Stevens, said his client's admission of wrongdoing helped prevent a longer prison sentence.

F&S owner Richard Stevens was sentenced to five months in prison last year, and company president Christopher Carr awaits sentencing after pleading guilty.