Pender County Commissioners receive update regarding vendor payment scam

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Pender County commissioners had their first regular meeting of the year on Monday.

During the meeting, they received an update from County Manager Colby Sawyer about the financial fraud incident discovered late last month.

Last month, Pender County officials said the county was the victim of a fraud scheme, which resulted in a loss of approximately $650,000.

On December 12th, a vendor told officials that multiple invoice payments had not been received.

An internal investigation that started shortly after found that back in September 2025, an outside party impersonated Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority and had both sent several false invoices and requested a change to banking details.

Sawyer said the state auditor has been asked to come in to assist for two reasons.

“The state auditor’s office has some specific powers that allows them to recover funds, that allows them to trace funds a little more quickly and recover funds a little more quickly,” Sawyer said. “We have however also invited the state auditor’s office to come in and do a full review and audit of all of our processes and procedures to see where we are doing well, where we can do better.”

The county’s internal investigation claims that no customers’ or residents’ personal information was compromised as a result of this incident.

Additional training will be provided to members of the county’s finance staff as well.

Commissioner Randy Burton told WWAY the county is still trying to determine whether insurance will cover the defrauded amount and what needs to be paid to the vendor.

Later in the meeting, several items related to the parks and recreation were discussed by commissioners.

Commissioners approved funding to be used to hire a new chief range safety officer for the Holly Shelter shooting range.

75 percent of the funding for the salaried position would be covered by NC Wildlife, and the remaining 25 percent by the county.

County Parks and Recreation director Zach White said this position will allow additional programs to be held at the range, while improving safety.

The position will be open to apply to starting on February 1st.

Commissioners also held a request for physical security infrastructure, like additional security cameras and electronic door access control for Kiwanis Park in Hampstead.

But that item was tabled for a later date.

“That item was tabled tonight,” White said. “The board gave myself and the county manager office direction that they wanted us to reach out to the Hampstead Kiwanis Club and see if they would be willing to contribute anything to that project so that we can better protect the county assets.”

The item will be discussed during the commissioner’s next meeting on January 20th in Hampstead.