Chance Andrew Lerner, 21, of Southampton (Credit: Warrington Police)
A BJ’s Wholesale Club employee has been charged with felony counts of theft by deception and access device fraud for stealing about $2,000 worth of fraudulent commissions for credit card applications and gift cards.
Chance Andrew Lerner, 21, of the 1400 block of Rosebud Road, Southampton, was charged June 29 by Warrington Township Police for his alleged role in the fraud at the 200 Easton Road store, according to the criminal docket.
On June 24, at 5:32 p.m., police were called to the market regarding an employee who is under internal investigation, police said.
Lerner was allegedly signing random people up for credit cards on a store-issued tablet, and in return, he was paid $3 per application by BJ’s, according to the complaint. All applications were denied, police said.
Furthermore, Lerner allegedly scammed BJ’s in a merchandise return scheme, in which he would do a legitimate return for a customer and then repeat the transaction fraudulently. In the second round of returns, he allegedly loaded funds onto store gift cards, which he later used to make personal purchases.
All in all, Lerner allegedly made $790 worth of gift cards to use for himself. The combined amount Lerner fraudulently obtained, police allege, was about $2,000.
Warrington Police claimed Lerner was arrested at work in the criminal complaint, but court documents show he was issued a summons for his arrest on July 2. He was not arraigned in Magisterial District Court and has no bail information, per court documents. A preliminary hearing is set for July 28 at 9:15 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Stacy Wertman.
Lerner is represented by Plymouth Meeting attorney William Denardo.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
