LITTLETON — A Littleton District Court judge ordered a 47-year-old West Lebanon man to remain at Grafton County jail following his Thursday arraignment on two felony charges of unemployment compensation fraud.
Peter Mancini, who appeared at his arraignment virtually from Grafton County jail in Haverhill, is alleged to have submitted false unemployment claims to the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security and received over $2,000 after being incarcerated on separate charges.
He entered no pleas to two felony charges of unemployment compensation fraud on Thursday.
If convicted, a felony offense is punishable by up to seven and and a half to 15 years in state prison, a fine, or both.
The affidavit in support of the charges alleges that Mancini filed for unemployment with the Department of Employment Security in August 2025, after he “lost his job opportunity at Nissan of Lebanon because he had been caught on camera stealing parts from one of their trucks.”
A voice message left for the Nissan of Lebanon sales manager, to whom a reporter was directed for comment, was not immediately returned on Friday.
Court records show that on Jan. 6, Mancini pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property and to two probation violations. He received a six-month jail sentence.
Charges allege that from October 2025 to February 2026, Mancini “falsely represented that an offer of employment was rescinded through no fault of his own,” the offices of the New Hampshire Attorney General and the Department of Employment Security Commissioner stated in a news release on Wednesday.
From the day he was incarcerated in January through February when his benefits exhausted, the affidavit alleges that Mancini “and another (allegedly) acted in concert to represent that Mancini performed work searches and/or was available and able to work without restrictions, omitting that Mancini was incarcerated.”
In total, Mancini is alleged to have received more than $11,000 in unemployment compensation, including over $2,000 after his incarceration on Jan. 6, 2026, according to the release.
Mancini’s alleged accomplice has not been charged.
“Mancini is the only arrest at this time,” Michael Garrity, director of communications at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, said in an email on Friday. “The investigation remains ongoing.”
Following Thursday’s arraignment, Littleton District Court Judge Sandra Cabrera ordered Mancini to remain in jail.
A probable cause hearing in the case is scheduled in Lebanon District Court on Monday at 1 p.m.
