The owner of a lawn care service company has been charged with ripping off a 79-year-old customer.
Robert Carl Joseph Ciampa, 30, of Ocala, who operates 352 Lawn Hustlers, is facing felony charges of fraud and theft following his arrest earlier this month by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies.
Ciampa performed some service for the man last year. In January, the 79-year-old man discovered that two $500 checks made out to Ciampa had cleared his bank, even though Ciampa had stopped performing lawn service for the elderly man. A detective found that Ciampa had deposited the checks in his credit union account. During an interview at the sheriff’s office, Ciampa initially denied knowledge of the checks, but the detective had subpoenaed records from Ciampa’s credit union, showing that the money had been deposited into his account. Ciampa said he has not been working in the past several months and that he has “five children and not a lot money.”
Ciampa is also facing a charge of driving under the influence as the result of a traffic crash in January in Marion County. The crash was serious and Ciampa had to be extricated from the vehicle by Marion County Fire Rescue. Ciampa and his wife, who had been riding as a passenger, both were hospitalized as a result of the crash. Ciampa had a .220 blood alcohol level and had been driving without a valid license. That criminal case is still pending…