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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that a Burlington County man was sentenced
to state prison today for knowingly writing
thousands of dollars worth of bad checks against
a bank account that was closed out.
According
to Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni,
Philip A. Ruggiero, Jr., 48, of Marlton, was
ordered by Superior Court Judge Harry Carroll
in Bergen County to serve seven years in state
prison and to pay $56,658 in restitution.
Ruggiero’s sentence was based on his
guilty plea to passing bad checks, a charge
contained in a Sept. 17, 2008 state grand
jury indictment.
In
pleading guilty on March 11, Ruggiero, a corporate
officer for Holmes Mill Farms LLC in Cream
Ridge, admitted that between Dec. 26, 2006
and Sept. 2, 2008, he wrote bad checks. An
investigation determined that after Ruggiero
was told by Mariner’s Bank in Edgewater,
Bergen County, that Holmes Mill Farms’
account at the bank was being closed, he continued
to write checks from the account. Ruggiero
sent the checks to various companies and individuals,
including checks that he wrote to his wife.
Mariner’s Bank paid out thousands of
dollars for the checks before uncovering the
fraud and referring the matter to the Division
of Criminal Justice for investigation.
Detective
Martin Farrell and Deputy Attorney General
Francine Ehrenberg coordinated the investigation.
Ehrenberg prosecuted the case and represented
the Division of Criminal Justice at the sentencing.
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