Ex-LIRR Conductor Pleads Guilty In Ticket Fraud Scheme

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A former Long Island Rail Road conductor admitted to scheming to defraud the Metropolitan Transportation Authority out of ticket revenue, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini and MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny announced Wednesday.

Robert Anderson, 61, of West Islip, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. Anderson was employed by LIRR from 2014 until shortly after his arrest in April 2021.

"We hold government employees to a high standard, and when they abuse their positions as custodians of public funds, they need to be held accountable," Sini said in a news release. "We will continue to do just that in collaboration with agencies like the MTA Inspector General’s Office to ensure residents’ hard-earned money is not being mishandled. I thank Inspector General Pokorny and the investigators and prosecutors who handled this case for their work in uncovering this scheme."

Between April 2019 and September 2020, Anderson would collect train tickets but not punch them as required by his official duties, authorities said. He would then provide the unpunched tickets to his acquaintances to either use or submit for refunds.

Anderson would then submit collection revenue reports falsely claiming that he had remitted all the tickets that he collected during his shift, authorities said. All LIRR conductors are required to submit revenue reports for each shift, which include all tickets and revenue collected.

Anderson did not include train tickets submitted by investigators in his signed revenue reports on eight separate occasions in 2019 and 2020.

"Justice is on time and on track — riders and taxpayers expect that when they pay a train fare it is going to support the railroad, not into an LIRR conductor’s pockets," Pokorny stated. "Once again, I am grateful to staff at the Long Island Railroad for bringing this matter to our attention and to our law enforcement partners at the Suffolk County District Attorney for working with my office to stop this unacceptable, criminal behavior."