DeWitt, N.Y. - DeWit police say they have arrested an onwer of a restaurant after they were found customers were being overcharged on their credit card.
65 year old Sharon McCarthy of DeWitt, who owns The Chophouse on Waring, has been charged with grand larceny and fraud after they discovered she had ripped customers and others off to the tune of at least $100,000. Police say it could amount to more.
Investigators learned that the owner of the restaurant would falsely double and/or over charge customers and upon receiving the deposited money from the credit card processors into her business banking accounts she would remove the money within a short time frame so all chargebacks would be rejected for lack of funds in the account. The owner used multiple business names to establish accounts with multiple credit card processors after each would subsequently suspend her accounts after they received rejections of multiple chargebacks attempts
The scheme not only hurt customers but caused significant losses to the credit card processing companies and vendors. The investigation continues.
McCarthy was charged with Grand Larceny 2nd, Grand Larceny 3rd (4 Counts), Grand Larceny 4th, and Scheme to Defraud 1st (2 counts). McCarthy was taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment.