Third Century Liquor Store Employee Charged With Theft Using Rewards Program

April 25, 2019

A third arrest has been made just as charges have been dropped against two people in connection the theft of thousands of dollars in cash or product from a liquor store in Century in a scheme involving shopper reward points.

Charissa Leigh Clarke, 31, is now charged with felony grand theft and fraud from the Fusion liquor store next to the Food Giant on North Century Boulevard.

Teresa Lachelle Burt, 41, and Latoya Trenise Washington, 31, were arrested last summer on similar charges, but charges against them have been dropped. Assistant State Attorney John Molchan said Wednesday afternoon that Burt and Washington have agreed to make restitution during a mediation hearing.

Clarke is accused of taking cash or product totaling $1,200. Burt was accused of stealing $978, while Washington allegedly took $350. An arrest warrant is still outstanding on a fourth suspect that allegedly took cash or product totaling $573.

The store offered a shopper reward point program, awarding points for each dollar spent to a customer’s reward account. According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Clarke and three other employees would fraudulently assign shopper points to accounts and then reconcile daily transactions by taking possession of product or cash equal to the number of points.  Customers were unable to notice anything wrong with their reward transactions.

Pictured: The Fusion liquor store in Century on Wednesday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

5 Responses to “Third Century Liquor Store Employee Charged With Theft Using Rewards Program”

  1. Bewildered on April 26th, 2019 1:39 am

    Good grief! If charges against the other two employees were dropped if they make restitution – let her do the same and get on with it. What does it take – more lawyers and court proceedings to come up with the same result!!!

  2. Regina on April 25th, 2019 10:50 am

    Wow. Isn’t it funny how life is. Some people claim to be so perfect and then you find …. that a leopard doesn’t change it’s spots. When will people start acting thier age. I know that little amount of money couldn’t have been worth it.

  3. consumer on April 25th, 2019 9:23 am

    I hate rewards programs – too complicated. I don’t want to have to carry an extra grocery store loyalty card to get my ‘discount’. I pay cash.

  4. retired on April 25th, 2019 7:22 am

    Maybe they can go to work for Century. Century needs some honest, hard working, and fast thinking people

  5. Anne on April 25th, 2019 6:16 am

    Goodness Gracious, it sure takes a special kind of intelligence and mind to come up with some of these honestly very cleaver schemes and scams.
    What is really sad is these folks didn’t put those minds and thought processes into an honest and productive enterprise that would yield a great future for them and their families. Instead, they seem to have decided it’d be a good idea to try and take the “Easy” path and now have criminal charges.
    Hopefully, this will be a Learning Time for them and they can turn things around.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News