Florida Bride Charged $50,000 To Company Credit Card To Pay For Wedding
Port St. Lucie, FL — A Florida bride was arrested earlier this week on charges of fraud and grand theft after she used her employer’s credit card to pay for her luxury wedding.
La’Reese and Darelle Darville were married June 1 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. La’Reese Darville was arrested Monday after she told detectives that she used her company card to cover most of her wedding costs. She was released from St. Lucie County Jail later that day on $7,500 bail.
The 31-year-old said she made the charges with the permission of her father, Leroy Felix, who is part-owner of her former employer, Partners III Pawn Shop.
“It’s been said, or worded, that the card was stolen,” Darville said. “I called. He gave me the number and (said) use it. I used it and it was being paid back, so I have no idea what the whole big deal is about, but (certainly) it was a huge mix-up.” She also said other pawn shop employees have used the company credit card and paid it back, so she didn’t understand why it was an issue when she did it.
Police were called to the pawn shop on November 17, and spoke with two other owners, Keith Angelotti and Scott Matthews. Both men said La’Reese Darville, who was the operations manager, handled the pawn shop’s finances. Angelotti, Matthews, and Felix all have individual Bank of America credit cards for the company’s account, but Matthews is the primary name on the account.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Bank of America called Scott Matthews on November 12 and told him he was late making payments. He found out the account was overdrawn by $10,000, and that Felix’s card was also charged about $10,000. Angelotti’s credit card had been charged about $28,000. Matthews asked Felix about the charges, but he said he didn’t know anything about it.
Keith Angelotti and Scott Matthews then spoke to La’Reese Darville, who admitted to using the cards for her wedding. Darville said her father told her she could use Angelotti’s card, but she never told him about the $10,000 charged to Matthews’ account.
La’Reese Darville told police that she used the pawn shop’s account 14 times for the wedding, and that she used about $3,000 from the company’s checking account to pay some of the credit card charges. She also said she planned to repay the business, which she left after eight years to be a stay at home mother, in full. She said she has repaid over $17,000 so far, but has no record of it.
Sara Krauss, who provided the photography for the wedding, said she couldn’t imagine what was going through La’Reese Darville’s head and that the bride “should have worked hard and saved up and then planned this wedding.”
According to the Sun-Sentinel, the credit cards that Darville used to pay for her wedding had not been used for two years, and began using the cards starting in September 2012.
[Photo credit: La’Reese Darville / Facebook]
