Oil company auditor pleads guilty

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut accountant has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax charges in a scheme by officials at a Waterbury heating oil company to defraud Citizens Bank of millions of dollars.

Fifty-seven-year-old Dale Ciccarelli of Southbury pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Hartford. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 1 and faces up to eight years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say Ciccarelli helped F&S Oil Company officials fraudulently obtain lines of credit from Citizens Bank to ease the company's cash flow problems. Prosecutors say Ciccarelli falsified financial statements including one used to obtain a $4.5 million line of credit in 2006.

F&S owner Richard Stevens and company president Christopher Carr also pleaded guilty. Stevens was sentenced to five months in prison last March, while Carr awaits sentencing.