An MBTA EMPLOYEE who was indicted and suspended six years ago for leveraging his job as a buyer to solicit kickbacks and illegal gifts pleaded guilty on Monday and was sentenced to a year in jail and required to pay restitution of $37,860.
Timothy Dockery of Plymouth pleaded guilty to 13 charges related to misuse of his job procuring office supplies and small construction contracts. Dockery helped one vendor obtain state contracts using fake invoices and steered MBTA business to three other vendors in return for kickbacks.
According to the attorney general’s office, Dockery and a vendor stole $38,000 using fake invoices. Dockery also received $91,000 in kickbacks for steering contracts to several vendors, including $60,000 in cash from one vendor who received $1.8 million in contracts over several years, $23,000 worth of tickets to sporting events and concerts from a second vendor, and $8,000 from a third vendor for lunches and goods for a business that Dockery operated on the side.
The investigation and prosecution of Dockery took nine years. The investigation started in 2014 following a hotline tip to the state inspector general’s office. The attorney general’s office joined the investigation in 2016, a year before the indictment. The attorney general’s office said the MBTA began investigating Dockery before any law enforcement involvement and has been cooperative over the last nine years.