FERNANDINA BEACH, FL - A veteran Nassau County Sheriff's Office employee was arrested Jan. 19 and charged with allegedly taking nearly eight years' worth of kickbacks as manager of the agency's fleet maintenance department, according to The Florida Times-Union.

Kenneth Wayne Taylor, an employee with the agency since 2001, is charged with allegedly taking unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior. Taylor, 53, of Folkston, was arrested at work about 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 and jailed on $25,000 bail, said Sheriff Tommy Seagraves, reported the Times-Union.

During an inventory review several weeks ago, Seagraves told the Times-Union he noticed goods were being purchased from Amsoil Inc, a Wisconsin-based distributor of oil products, and Taylor's past employer. Investigators contacted a company employee and discovered Taylor was the purchasing agent on the account. Records obtained by the Times-Union revealed Taylor allegedly received nearly $3,000 in commissions since 2002, according to Seagraves.

Taylor, recently demoted from his job on an unrelated matter, was called into the agency's internal affairs office and arrested. He was also fired, Seagraves was quoted as saying, according to the Times-Union.

Although Taylor indicated to Seagraves that he had previously been allowed to make the purchases under former Sheriff Ray Geiger, Seagraves was quoted by the Times-Union as saying he knew nothing about such a deal and it was still against the law.

Florida law prohibits an employee of a public agency from acting as a purchasing agent and purchasing goods for his own agency.