By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


After failing to appear in court, a Pinckney man accused of embezzling $100,000 of scrap metal is back in custody.

39-year-old Ian Lumley was charged earlier this year with one count of embezzling more than $50,000 but less than $100,000 following an investigation by Pinckney Police of suspected thefts from a business on Hamburg Street in the Village.

Lumley was set to appear on August 20th for a pretrial hearing in front of Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty, but failed to show up. Hatty then issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Court records show that the warrant was recently canceled and a pre-trial hearing set for December 10th.

Lumley, who is lodged in the Livingston County Jail, is accused of starting to steal metal within a week of his employment in November of 2019. Certain machines at the business had also stopped working due to electric wiring being removed. Police located the various types of metal, which included copper, brass, stainless steel and aluminum at various scrap dealers in Washtenaw and Wayne counties.

Witnesses reported seeing Lumley fill boxes with metal, although no one was sure what he was doing with them. Detective Ryan Hamlin said he was able to obtain a confession from Lumley, who allegedly blamed a lack of surveillance equipment for making it easy to steal the metal.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison on the embezzlement charge.