A well-known local upholstery business was ordered to pay more than $100,000 in fines Monday after pleading no contest to trying to charge an elderly customer more than $62,000 for drapes that cost them $2,250 to purchase and install.
Arrow Upholstery & Drapery was ordered to pay a $102,000 fine in the second-degree felony elder fraud case.
The company’s owner, Sidney Lachman, wasn’t in the 399th District Court when the ruling was issued. Neither was his son-in-law Scott Fahrenthold, who made the sale.
Attorney Jesse Sepulveda, who entered the no contest plea on behalf of the business, declined comment Monday.
Bertha Briggs, who lived in the Towers retirement community, contacted Arrow Upholstery in April 2006 to install five window drapes. The business initially charged her $62,000 but later agreed to reduce the amount to $11,300 after her daughter complained, according to court documents.
Despite the steep reduction, Briggs was still overcharged, her daughter, Sharon Morey, said in court documents.
Morey traveled from California to meet with the Bexar County district attorney’s office in June 2006, after getting a call from her mother’s bank attempting to verify a $35,000 down payment check to Arrow Upholstery.
The daughter said Briggs, who died this year, was 90 years old and her eyesight, hearing and memory were failing at the time the purchase was made. Read on…
That’s just low. They took advantage of someone’s grandmother. Hey big shot Arrow Upholstery & Drapery, how would you like it if we came and messed with your granny?
Who knew the grand business of drapery could have such colossal jerks?
How sick and corrupt must these guys be to take advantage of an elderly woman like this! What’s next…child molesting??