Charles Hawkins of Derry reportedly made a deal with prosecutors this week to serve a single-year jail term and pay $60,000 restitution. Before the deal can be finalized, it must be signed off on by a judge, according to the North Andover-based Eagle Tribune newspaper.
While working as a bookkeeper and later as the chief financial officer of National Aperture in Salem, Mass., Hawkins allegedly stole more than $56,000. According to prosecutors, Hawkins spent more than $16,000 of that money on adult website subscriptions and on dating sites like FriendFinder.com and Match.com.
According to police, Hawkins wrote 24 checks between July 2001 and May 2004 to pay for a variety of expenses without company permission. In addition to his online adult entertainment and dating site expenditures, Hawkins allegedly used the money for repairs to his boat, installing an in-ground swimming pool at his home in Derry, $3,400 on a trip to the Bahamas, hotel rooms in Florida and Maine, more than $8,800 in donations to the Trinity Assembly of God church in Derry and a $1,000 donation to an after-school program at a local middle school.
Under the agreement he made with prosecutors, Hawkins will avoid the maximum sentence of seven and a half to 15 years that could have stemmed from the charges. He is scheduled to appear and enter his guilty plea to theft charged in Rockingham County Superior Court on Sept. 7 and will begin his jail term on Jan. 3. Hawkins currently is free on bail pending finalization of his plea agreement.