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Former MPS IT service technician sentenced for theft

Posted at 5:53 PM, Oct 21, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-21 18:53:04-04

FRANKLIN — The TODAY'S TMJ4 I-Team has learned a former MPS IT service technician sold computers that belonged to the district and then went on to do the same at Northwestern Mutual in Franklin.

Court records show the theft began in November of 2017 when Joshua Benishek was an IT service technician employed by MPS.

Benishek took computer equipment from the MPS warehouse and also from the 10 schools he was assigned to work at.

The district learned about the theft when an electronics store manager contacted MPS saying Benishek had been selling hundreds of technology items including laptops, hard drives, and other items.

Some of the items still had the MPS logo on the screen when they were powered on.

Investigators say it wasn't just computer equipment. They say Benishek also sold musical equipment that he had taken from the MPS warehouse.

The total value of all of the equipment was more than $36,000.

Benishek left MPS in March of 2018.

Less than one year later, Benishek did the same with computers stolen when he was a computer equipment contractor at Northwestern Mutual in Franklin.

He was caught when a woman bought a laptop on eBay. She called the company when she found Northwestern Mutual's security encryption on it.

Those thefts added up to more than $22,000.

Benishek admitted stealing and selling the computers saying he had a gambling problem and that he needed to pay back $37,000 to MPS.

Earlier this month a judge sentenced Benishek to nine months in the House of Correction.