by Daniel Duric, for the Newport Dispatch

NEWPORT — A former maintenance supervisor at North Country Hospital allegedly embezzled more than $163,000 through fraudulent expense claims, inflated on-call pay requests, and reimbursements for cancelled or returned purchases, according to police.

Eric Dupuis, 34, has pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement and forgery, all felonies. He was released on conditions by Judge Rory Thibault.

The investigation began after Dupuis was fired in December 2023 for lying about his whereabouts during what he claimed was a work training course. According to court documents, Dupuis told supervisors he was attending a healthcare facilities management class in Atlanta when he was actually vacationing in Florida with friends.

Following his dismissal, hospital officials reviewing his expenses discovered irregularities. A forensic audit found that of 43 expense reimbursement requests Dupuis submitted to Home Depot and Lowe’s between May and December 2023, auditors determined 41 involved merchandise that Dupuis had either returned or never actually received. He was nevertheless reimbursed more than $105,000 for those items, according to the police affidavit.

Auditors also found Dupuis had dramatically inflated his on-call pay claims. In 2020, he claimed about 127 unscheduled on-call hours. By 2021, that figure had jumped to 3,867 hours.

The hospital pays $5 per hour for on-call time regardless of whether employees are called in. Total on-call payments over four years amounted to more than $56,000, police said.