A former State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) employee has been accused of spending more than 500 work hours on telephone chat lines and incurring more than $20,000 in improper phone charges to the State.

Edward Reilly, 52, of Delmar, a former DEC environmental engineer II, was accused in a criminal complaint filed in Albany City Court with making more than 760 calls to premium rate telephone services over a more than six-year period from his office phone and conference room phones at DEC headquarters in Albany.

In total, the calls, mostly made to phone numbers located in the Caribbean, added up to $20,125 billed to the DEC and lasted more than 500 hours chat at times Reilly was supposed to be working for the State, according to the state Inspector General’s office.

“The charges allege he not only misappropriated State resources but that he did it while on the taxpayers’ time,” Inspector General Ellen Biben said. “Theft from the State will not be tolerated, and my office will continue to vigorously root out individuals who abuse the public trust.”

The charges allege Reilly made numerous phone  chat to such premium rate telephone services as VIP Sensual Chat, VIP Club Sensual Chat, Quest Chat, Secret Encounters, Metrovibe and Local Chat.

Reilly was charged with third-degree grand larceny and five counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, felonies. He was arraigned before Albany City Court Judge Rachel Kretser and released on his own recognizance pending further court action.

The top charge alone, third-degree grand larceny, carries a maximum potential prison sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years.