LI CRIME BRIEFS

HEMPSTEAD/Social services worker charged

A county Department of Social Services worker and a welfare recipient were arrested on grand larceny and fraud charges in a $29,000 scam, Nassau officials said Thursday.

County officials said an inquiry by the Department of Social Services investigations team uncovered the scheme after a tip from a confidential source. The information was then turned over to the Nassau police Crimes Against Property Squad.

Investigators said social services employee Nicole Garcia, 28, authorized transfers of about $29,000 to a benefits card in the name of Tiara Clemons, 30, of 529 Sterling St., Uniondale.

The two then shared in the proceeds, officials said.

Police said Clemons was not entitled to the benefits and that Garcia, of 85 N. Long Beach Ave., Apt. 1R, Freeport, knowingly authorized a "series of fraudulent monetary disbursements" between December 2010 and January 2011.

Garcia was fired on Sept. 19, an agency spokeswoman said. She is charged with grand larceny, tampering with public records, welfare fraud, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument, defrauding the government and official misconduct, police said. Clemons is charged with grand larceny and welfare fraud.

-- Gary Dymski

GARDEN CITY/Home burglary suspects arrested

Two Hempstead men face burglary charges, thanks to an alert witness who noticed them acting suspiciously near a Garden City home, Nassau County police said.

Third Squad detectives said a woman noticed two men outside a home on Maxwell Road at about 2:35 p.m. Wednesday.

The woman also saw that the rear sliding door of the residence was open. When she looked inside, she saw the two men and yelled at them, police said. The two unlocked the front door and fled.

Garden City police later stopped the two suspects on Arthur Street, and they were identified by the witness, detectives said.

Police arrested Markus Bracken, 18, of 100 Terrace Ave., Apt. 534, and Cordaro Jones, 19, of 145 Terrace Ave., Apt. 3B.

One of the men had a backpack with assorted jewelry, police said, and a bolt cutter was found in a rear yard.

Police said both are charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools and were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

-- Gary Dymski

ISLAND PARK/Attempted theft of used cooking oil

Two Queens men tried to steal used cooking oil from an Island Park restaurant by vacuuming it from a recycling container, Nassau County police said.

Byron A. Villacres Parra, 28, of 1827 Woodbine St., Ridgewood, and Mario A. Romero Malave, 38, of 51-19 103rd St., Corona, were arrested on charges of attempted petty larceny and possession of burglary tools, police said.

Police said they saw the two men parked in a box truck behind a restaurant at 4310 Austin Blvd. at about 3:18 a.m. Wednesday. The men attempted to use high-powered suction equipment to empty a restaurant's recycling container of the used oil, police said.

The oil can be sold to recycling companies and converted to biodiesel, similar to diesel fuel, police said.

Police arrested the men, who were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

-- Gary Dymski

SHIRLEY/2 car-school bus accidents

Two early morning bus accidents in Suffolk County Thursday left one person injured, Suffolk County police said.

A school bus and car collided at 6:55 a.m. on the William Floyd Parkway at the intersection with Roberts Road in Shirley.

Authorities said the bus, carrying students to William Floyd High School, was making a left turn onto Roberts from the southbound parkway when a northbound car went through a traffic light and slid under the rear of the bus.

No one was injured in that crash. Police said the driver of the car, who was not identified, was issued a summons for failure to obey a traffic device.

In another accident in Brentwood at 6:47 a.m., a Suffolk Transit bus and car crashed near the intersection of Washington Avenue and Arthur Street. The car's driver was taken to a hospital with undisclosed injuries, police said. That person was not identified.

The crashes came a day after an MTA bus crashed into a school bus carrying preschool students at an intersection in Cedarhurst. Officials said 27 people, including 14 children, suffered minor injuries.

-- John Valenti