Mildenhall airman gets two years for computer thefts
RAF MILDENHALL, England — A senior airman was sentenced to two years of confinement after being convicted of larceny during a court-martial here Thursday afternoon.
Senior Airman Aldrian O. Niverba of Mildenhall’s 352nd Maintenance Squadron was found guilty by a five-member jury that also sentenced him to a reprimand, reduction to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances for 24 months and a bad-conduct discharge.
Last year, Niverba stole 10 Itronix computers, built for rugged military use, while working as a software technician for his unit. According to court testimony, the estimated cost of the computers is about $43,000.
Niverba did not intend to keep the computers, he said, but to borrow them for use at his home in Beck Row.
“I initially wanted to work on the computers to install software,” he said in court, but admitted that he used three computers for surfing the Internet, instant messaging and playing computer games.
He hid the other seven in his closet, just in case he became “inspired” to load work-related software on them, he told the judge, Maj. Adam Oler.
Niverba was also found guilty of the fraudulent use of credit cards to purchase items for himself while he was a patient at Capio Nightingale Hospital in London earlier this year.
As an inpatient at the psychiatric hospital, he memorized the numbers and expiration dates of credit cards belonging to people who were also at the hospital.
He then went online and used those numbers to order flowers and electronics delivered to him at the hospital.
He told the court that he did that “to make myself feel better.”
