SKOWHEGAN — The amount of money collected by former Anson Tax Collector Claudia Viles and the amount deposited in town accounts differed by more than $500,000 over five years, an auditor for the town testified Tuesday in Somerset County Superior Court.

Viles, 66, who resigned as tax collector in September, is charged with 13 counts, including a Class B felony, in connection with allegations that she stole excise tax money paid to the town.

Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases Tuesday afternoon after two days of testimony. Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday morning, after which the jury will begin deliberations.

On Tuesday, Richard Emerson, an auditor for Purdy Powers and Co. of Portland, testified that he had warned Anson town officials about problems that could arise from the way the town handled excise tax money, but those warnings went unheeded until a new computer system revealed discrepancies.

Emerson said he calculated a difference of $500,948 between what Viles collected and what she handed over to the town between 2010 and the fall of 2014. The town has charged in a lawsuit that $438,712 disappeared between 2011 and September 2014.

An indictment handed down in the case accuses Viles of theft dating back to Jan. 1, 2009, but Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said Tuesday that police did not review records for 2009 because the town never requested an audit of that year. The cost of an audit for one year of tax records is about $8,000, and Robbin said in an interview Tuesday that “at some point they decided they didn’t want to throw good money after bad.”

Emerson, who has audited town records for Anson since about 1990, testified that excise tax collections were consistent over the years, with the exception of 2014, when officials noticed about a $50,000 increase in excise taxes collected. Before that, he said a normal increase each year would be about $10,000 to $15,000.

“Based upon that testimony, one could conclude she has been doing this for quite a long time,” Robbin said of the allegation that Viles stole excise tax money.

Viles’ attorney, Walter McKee, said Monday in his opening statement that anyone could have taken the money – including inmates from the Somerset County Jail, who helped move the Town Office in 2014 – but the investigation unfairly focused solely on Viles.

McKee did not call any witnesses in the trial.

Anson officials contacted Emerson in early 2015, concerned about the unusual increase in the amount of motor vehicle excise tax collected, he said. He had done audits for the town in the past, and he had warned the town about lack of oversight over excise tax collection and the danger of not making timely bank deposits of the money, but the town didn’t follow his recommendations.

McKee has not made any statements during the trial to explain the alleged mistakes in recordkeeping, but asked Emerson on Tuesday whether Viles made an effort to address the concerns he had.

Rachel Ohm can be contacted at 612-2368 or at:

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