ANDERSON, Ind.­ — Former Chesterfield police officer Joseph Brown is accused of being at the center of an alleged scheme that the state says plundered $115,391.44 in town money.

Brown endorsed 24 town checks written to Brown’s Automotive between January 2007 and March 2008, according to an audit by the Indiana State Board of Accounts. The two dozen checks included claims for repairs on police cars, utility vehicles, trailers, tractors and even diesel-powered engines for the town’s water plant.

“There is no evidence that any work was performed on any equipment owned by the town of Chesterfield,” the audit says. It’s also believed that Brown’s Automotive was an invention that existed only on paper.

“That was our assumption,” said Paul Joyce, deputy state examiner for the Board of Accounts. “It does not exist in the place it says it does” on claims. Rather, the address is a residence on Brown Street in Anderson.

“It’s pretty egregious ... and very bold,” Joyce said of the alleged scheme. “You go back to the size of the community ... it’s pretty bad.”

The audit asks Brown, former Town Marshal James Kimm and former Clerk-Treasurer Chris Parrish to repay the $115,391.44. Kimm and Brown are half-brothers.

According to the audit, the 24 checks endorsed by Brown were for amounts between $614 and $8,750. They included a range of services that area mechanics contacted Thursday said would not be typically performed at an automotive shop.

Brown, Kimm and Parrish could not be reached for comment Thursday.

“I haven’t seen (Brown) since the town did away with his part-time position,” said Chesterfield interim Police Chief Robert Stewart, who has been on the force 22 years. He said officers are glad the audit was released.

“I think overall the guys here think it’s great this is out, because this is naming names,” Stewart said, acknowledging the department had suffered “a black eye.”

“I hope people still think the department is trustworthy,“ he said. “A select few made it bad for all of us.”

The audit says that Kimm or Parrish certified the claims, and that Parrish, as the town’s fiscal officer, entered the checks into the town’s computerized accounting system as “manual” checks. Those checks are not included in the detailed listing of town spending that is presented to the town council for approval, the audit says.

The bogus claims were generated using standard word-processing software and included numbers that were not in sequence, according to the audit.

The audit spells out numerous violations of law, but Joyce said he couldn’t speak to possible charges. He also said he could not address where the money went after checks were cashed.

Tim Morrison, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, on Thursday could neither confirm nor deny that investigations were under way.

Town Council members were unaware of the violations until they were brought to their attention by state regulators, according to the audit. Joyce said council members only would have noticed discrepancies in the books if they had been independently monitoring cash balances of town accounts.

“It’s hard to hold people who weren’t part of this process accountable,” Joyce said.

Joyce said smaller units of government are no less likely to have episodes like those alleged in Chesterfield. Fewer people are involved, he said, so opportunities for fraud are greater.

The economy has also resulted in an increase in problem audits around the state, he said.

“We are finding it’s becoming more prevalent this type of thing is happening,” he said. “It’s definitely not common to this level.”

Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com