news-record.com

FAYETTEVILLE — A former head of the state Division of Motor Vehicles regional law enforcement office in Fayetteville was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison for mail fraud.

Bill Toman, 54, pleaded guilty in federal court in November to three counts of mail fraud. He was arrested in 2009, when he was leading a 12-county region of DMV law enforcement offices out of the License and Theft Bureau office in Fayetteville.

Toman was accused of pocketing a total of $15,000 he solicited from three insurance companies under the claim that the money would be used for law enforcement, according to court documents.

Toman resigned from his position in September 2009 after he was charged in Duplin County with buying three stolen lawn mowers worth more than $10,000. Toman was accused of concealing evidence and impeding efforts to prosecute others involved in the thefts.

A former detective with the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, Toman was a deputy from 1982 to 1994.

George Tatum, the former commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles, hired Toman in 2006 to head the DMV branch in Fayetteville.

Toman was ordered Monday to pay $15,000 in restitution. His sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution is to begin April 1, according to court documents.