Woman Reportedly Scammed School Districts Out Of Thousands
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A Plantation woman reportedly bilked thousands of dollars out of more than a dozen out of state school districts in a cleaning products scam.
Christen Rector, 37, had allegedly been running the con for several years but it began to unravel in December 2012 when the Superintendent of Unified School District #376 in Sterling, Kansas made a police report with the Sunrise Police Department.
The report stated that his school district had paid a company by the name of C&J Supplies over $8,000.00 for cleaning products over the course of several months, but has never received any of the cleaning products.
All of the checks were cashed at two Check Cashing Stores, both located in Sunrise, by Rector who said she was the owner of C & J Supplies.
Investigators dug a little deeper and found discovered checks from victims have been cashed going back to at least 2009. At least 17 different school districts and three cities in different states have paid C & J Supplies more than $100,000.
On December 27th, Sunrise detectives went to Rector's residence.
Police said she admitted that C & J Supplies didn't really exist and that she mailed the school district invoices in hopes that they would send her money. She reportedly told investigators that she never had any intentions of sending any products to any of the school districts or cities she invoiced.
Rector was arrested on January 8th, 2013 and charged with Grand Theft 1st degree and fraud.
