A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty to giving false information in an effort to get fishery disaster relief funds following Hurricane Sandy.
Prosecutors say 56-year-old Dave Bardzik, of Ossipee, submitted several false and/or altered records to the state Fish and Game Department in 2015 in an attempt to qualify for the funds.
Investigators noted discrepancies between the 2015 submission and previous records Bardzik had completed. He admitted that he created the records because he would otherwise not have qualified for funds.
Required criteria included that "for hire" vessels, like Bardzik's, must have taken at least 15 trips in three of the previous four years in which at least one New England groundfish species was harvested.
Bardzik is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 5, 2019.
