Former Pennsylvania Police Chief Sentenced over Insurance Check

A police chief in suburban Philadelphia has been sentenced to 9 to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges he used someone else’s benefit check as a down payment for a Cadillac Escalade.

Prosecutors say 49-year-old Booker T. Wilson was working part-time at a halfway house in 2007 when he took a check for more than $6,600 that was intended for a former resident.

Wilson had been police chief in Chester Township since 2004, but resigned in October when he pleaded guilty to forgery and receiving stolen property.

His attorney asked for probation or home monitoring in court Tuesday, citing Wilson’s more than two decades of police work.

But The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Chester County Judge William P. Mahon argued jail was appropriate given Wilson’s position.