MOSCOW, December 24 (RAPSI) – A court in Tomsk sentenced former mayor of the city, Nikolai Nikolaichuk, to four-year suspended term for abuse of authority and fined him 4.7 million rubles ($67,000), RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

A court ordered Nikolaichuk to compensate Tomsk for the damage he caused by initiating additional repair works in 2011 at one of the city’s streets without proper funds to back them up. According to investigators, the former mayor told the company behind the repairs that it would be paid from the city’s budget, yet after works were finished there was no promised payment.

In 2013, a company responsible for the repairs filed lawsuit with a commercial court and won the case, receiving 36 million rubles ($514,000) from the budget of Tomsk. This sum was deemed as damage caused to the city by actions of Nikolaichuk prompting the launch of a criminal case against him.