PARSONS, TN - A former City of Parsons employee reportedly bought more than $4,000 worth of fuel at the city's expense, according to the Tennessee Comptroller's Division of Municipal Audit.

Investigators found that Timothy Westbrooks, a former employee of Parsons' street department, used the retired city employee's fuel card to purchase gas for his own personal use from various retail gas locations. Westbrooks told officials that he found the card while cleaning a city vehicle, according to a release from the Division of Municipal Audit.

The purchase information for each transaction, including the vehicle, operator, location, odometer, etc., was recorded and communicated to the agency on a weekly basis. However, at that time, the City did not have effective internal controls in place to detect this unauthorized use of a city fueling card, according to the audit division.

City officials are allowing Westbrooks to reimburse the city for the fuel charges, which totaled at least $4,176 between April 1 and December 31, 2009. Westbrooks is on parole until 2018 on charges of robbery and voluntary manslaughter, according to the release.