By Thomas J. Prohaska
NEWS NIAGARA REPORTER
LOCKPORT — A Williamsville man who for 17 months was creating bogus satellite TV accounts, and collecting money for purportedly installing d*shes that actually never left his basement, will have to repay $16,000 under terms of a plea agreement announced Thursday.
Michael J. Manhart, 37, of North Ellicott Street, pleaded guilty in Niagara County Court to first-degree scheming to defraud, a felony that could place him in prison for as long as four years.
Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza will decide that June 23, but she did order Manhart to make the restitution payment.
Assistant District Attorney Heather A. Sloma-DeCastro said the $16,000 will be divided between DirecTV and its local installer, K&R Communications.
State Police Investigator Christopher Puckett said Manhart, a subcontractor for K&R, created the phony DirecTV accounts by using the names and Social Security numbers of former customers he dealt with when he owned two Verizon cell phone stores in Erie County.
He had sold those stores, one at Sheridan Drive and Millersport Highway in Amherst, the other on McKinley Parkway in Hamburg, but took the personal information with him, Puckett said.
“He’d use the correct name and Social [Security number] and make up an address or get one from a business so they’d pass the credit check,” Puckett said. “In some cases, [the bills] would go to a Wegmans or a pizzeria.”
The investigator said Manhart sometimes stumbled on someone who already had DirecTV service. “They’d ask why they were getting bills for different addresses. It took a while to figure it out,” Puckett said.
But Manhart would inform the company of the new account and installation and collect payment from the company, Sloma-DeCastro said.
She said 10 phony accounts were created in Niagara County, 15 in Erie County and 11 more in other counties, including one as far east as Oneida County. The scam lasted from October 2006 to March 2008.
Defense attorney Adam B. Conners said the cost of restitution was higher than he thought it would be, but Sloma- DeCastro said this was because it included the Erie County cases.
Puckett said the customers whose names were used didn’t lose any money. Sloma-DeCastro said Manhart was compelled to surrender the papers with the Social Security numbers he was using.
Posts
