Feb 25, 2016 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – State police said a severe gambling addiction led a Cumberland Township man to use his former employer’s company credit card to spend more than $112,000 on lottery tickets and gift cards last year.

Brian Roy Kozy is accused of using the company credit card from Aug. 22, when he lost his job as a tanker truck driver for 1st Choice Energy Services, until early January to make purchases totaling $112,849.

Police charged him Feb. 5 with one felony count of access device fraud. Kozy, 32, waived that charge to trial before his preliminary hearing Thursday with District Judge Lee Watson.

Kozy and his defense attorney, Michael Aubele, declined to comment as they left the district judge’s office near Carmichaels.

Investigators said Kozy used the card most often to buy lottery tickets and gift cards at the Circle K in Carmichaels, Sheetz in Paisley and Circle K in Uniontown. Police said Kozy bought up to $500 worth of lottery tickets at each store during his regular trips to the three area shops.

Police wrote in court documents that Kozy admitted he “got carried away” and he became addicted to buying lottery tickets and “went extremely overboard” with the credit card.

“Kozy used the card to try to keep his head above water,” police wrote in court documents.

After Kozy was laid off from his job with 1st Choice Energy of New Philadelphia, Ohio, in August, his former supervisor went to pick up the tanker truck Kozy used, along with keys and a cellphone, and later realized a credit card was missing.

The company audited the card’s account in January and found $118,074 in purchases were made since last May. That figure astonished company officials because truck drivers were permitted to use the business credit card only to purchase antifreeze or other items needed for the truck, but were to never use it for personal expenses.

A clerk at the Circle K in Carmichaels told police she “thought (Kozy) was doing something wrong because of how many purchases he made and the amount of the purchases.” The chain recently began allowing people to use credit cards to purchase lottery tickets, but she eventually stopped allowing him to use it for the lottery.

Police said he then went to the convenience store in Uniontown to buy gift cards to purchase Christmas presents during the holidays.

Troopers interviewed Kozy in mid-January and he allegedly told them he returned one of the company credit cards, but was told by his supervisor to keep another credit card. He allegedly told police he did not realize he had spent more than $100,000 with the card between his layoff in August and when police began investigating in early January.

Kozy remains free on $125,000 unsecured bond as he awaits his formal arraignment on the access device fraud.