Maybe it’s because I’m too close to the business as a whole, or my sense of justice is weighted toward the punitive when it comes to stealing antiques and art, but when I see a story like this one, from the Nov. 19 issue of commercialappeal.com, out of Memphis, Tenn., I can’t help but be bothered more than a little bit. This particular story is one of an antique dealer’s theft of more than $140,000 from clients and her subsequent arrest, order to repay all her victims and to serve a 30-day jail sentence, which she’ll be able to do on the weekends... Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of even getting a jail sentence?

The dealer, one Victoria Padgett, 59, formerly of Crump-Padgett Antique Gallery, plead guilty in criminal court a few months ago to 14 state felony counts. She has to pay back her victims – what chance of that? - and pay some back taxes, but for the most part is getting off without too much ado, even after stealing a tremendous amount of money from people who trusted her; 13 in all.

This is a common enough story – there was a similar story just went down in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area, where scammers, posing as dealers, promise quick money to investors – I’m only guessing this was the case here, but it’s common enough – like turning $10,000 into $40,000 in a week. The people give the money, the weeks fly by, and finally charges are filed. It can be a time-consuming process, as somehow these things are hard to prosecute. Get busted with a vial of crack, or prescription drugs that aren’t yours, and the system moves pretty quickly. With this, not so much. Then the verdict comes down as a mandate to pay back the victims and spend 30 days in jail. I’m sorry, but this is a bit much for me.

What is the enforcement vehicle for ensuring payback, I wonder? With so many other issues to focus on, I would reckon local law enforcement in Memphis has more on its plate than a delinquent former antiques dealer. What is to stop a scammer from simply failing to pay, moving away and starting the same Ponzi scheme again.

In my estimation, not a whole lot. Certainly not jail time… let’s see, 30 days, served on the weekend… That’s about three or four months of weekends, if she serves all of it… Can Padgett choose which weekends to serve? I wonder why this model isn’t applied more often to felons. Embezzled a couple mill from stockholders? How about six months of Tuesday afternoons in months ending with “y.”

This is just my opinion, mind you, and not that of StyleWire’s publisher necessarily, but I believe a statement on this sort of scamming needs to be made, especially as the nation is now in a fully acknowledged recession not predicted to stop until next spring or summer. All it would take is one or two more people to see a travesty of justice like this, realize they can get away with a lot and pay very little, and the rest is not hard to picture. In the 10 years I’ve been covering this sort of thing I’ve seen this story about 10 different times, and it rarely stops with the latest felony conviction. Theft of any kind is reprehensible, for sure, but serial bilking is an addiction for its practitioners, especially in this business. Without fear of real retribution from the people they are harming, a criminal will go back to the well over and over again…

Here’s a link to the article. Make up your own mind.

-Noah Fleisher, Nov. 19, 2008