Three Victims Awarded Judgments in Consignment Shop Scam
Justice is bittersweet for three victims of the alleged scam executed by the owner of Elegance II Consignment Shop following a New Castle Town Court decision Thursday night.
Elegance II, which was located on South Greeley Avenue in Chappaqua, relocated to Pleasantville earlier this year by owner Julia Faotto but never reopened, leaving multiple victims without their items and money.
Since Faotto, who has not responded to e-mails or phone calls since February, did not appear in court, the three victims accepted default judgments and were awarded the full sum of their claims.
Under the law, Faotto has 30 days to contest the ruling.
Despite judgments in their favor, the three victims have no confidence that they will ever receive their money or be able to retrieve their belongings. Under the ruling, the plaintiffs are responsible for enforcing the judgment themselves, meaning that if Faotto isn’t found, it is unlikely they will be able to receive payment from her.
The women can file the judgments with the county clerk’s office and a lien could be placed against the shop, said Town Justice Douglas Kraus, who granted the judgments. In addition, the county sheriff can garnish any accounts found in Faotto’s name and go after any property she may own.
Kraus said that the victims could have opted for a month-long adjournment, during which time they could have hired a processor in hopes of finding Faotto.
One of the plaintiffs, Lynn Kohn, said they declined that option because they did not believe Faotto would be found.
Kohn was awarded $750 for three pairs of shoes that she brought to Elegance II in December. She went to the Chappaqua shop one day after the date set by Faotto to collect her money or reclaim the shoes, only to find the store had closed. Kohn said e-mails sent to Faotto were never answered.
Connecticut resident Emma Patterson was awarded $995 for a leather and fur coat that she brought to the Chappaqua shop last September. In December, Patterson returned to the shop to learn that the item had sold, but charged that when she asked Faotto for the money, the owner began taking phone calls and acted as though she was too busy to write a check.
Additional attempts to collect the money were made, said Patterson, but each time Faotto never showed up.
Patterson explained that when she decided to sell her coat, she asked her daughter to do a Google search for consignment shops. Although there were two that were closer to her home, Patterson chose to use the Chappaqua shop because she has a friend in town and figured the trip would give them the chance to have lunch together.
“I went to the wrong consignment shop. I’ll chalk it up to a loss at the casino,” Patterson said of the experience.
Alexis Cambareri received the maximum $3,000 judgment allowed in small claims court. According to Cambareri, last September she brought in a white Chanel bag and was issued a check for $987.50 for the sale of the item. She went to cash it at Wells Fargo Bank, where Faotto had a checking account, but was told that the transaction could not be completed because there were insufficient funds in the account.
She made several other attempts to cash the check, but was told each time that it couldn’t be done.
“She had done this to me before with bounced checks but she always gave me the money so I wasn’t worried,” Cambareri told Kraus.
Around the same time, Cambareri said she also gave Faotto a black Chanel bag as well as a brown Shearling coat to sell. She said she has text messages showing that Faotto claimed to have sold the black bag for $2,000, a lower amount than what was initially agreed on.
The two women had agreed to meet in Pleasantville on Feb. 17 to settle the matter, but Cambareri said Faotto failed to show.
Cambareri said she can see the Shearling coat, valued at about $400, through the window of the closed Pleasantville shop at 484 Bedford Rd. Although New Castle police are aware of the situation, she has not reached out to Pleasantville police about the matter.
Kraus said he may be able to sign an order saying that the coat needs to be returned. It’s possible that police in both municipalities may be able to help get the coat returned, he said.
“We just have to kind of wait and see what the police say,” Cambareri said after Thursday’s court hearing.
Pleasantville Detective Morgan Cole-Hatchard said that police would be unable to go into the shop to retrieve the coat or any other items without a warrant. She also said that Pleasantville police have only one complaint against Elegance II, filed by a woman who charged that she made a deal with Faotto to have 12 items sold, valued at a combined $2,000, but was never paid despite multiple attempts to contact Faotto via e-mail and Facebook.
Since the transaction occurred in Chappaqua, as did all others previously reported by the victims, Cole-Hatchard explained that the Pleasantville Police Department does not have jurisdiction over the case, but would assist New Castle if asked.
Kraus said if Faotto is failing to pay rent and the landlord initiates eviction proceedings, he can sign an order entitling the women to their belongings in the shop once the space reverts to the owner.
William Barish, the owner of the Pleasantville building where the unopened Elegance II sits, said Faotto has failed to pay rent in several months. However, if police determine that Faotto’s actions constitute a crime, the items in the shop could be held as evidence.
The judgment is valid for 20 years and accrues a 9 percent annual interest rate from the time it is issued until the matter is settled. In addition, if Faotto is still in the country, Kraus said that courts in other states will enforce the judgment in New Castle.
“If no property can be found in the jurisdiction, it can be hard,” said Kraus. “It’s small consolation but it’s the best we can do.”
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