Local News in Brief : Defendant Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case

A Van Nuys man, recently extradited from England, where he was a defendant in a celebrated vice trial, admitted in federal court in Los Angeles that he bilked scores of companies out of more than $686,000.

Thomas Leonard Balla, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday to five counts of mail fraud before U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima. Balla faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count at sentencing March 13.

In the London case, Balla was accused of running a call-girl ring in the fashionable Mayfair District. But to the surprise of prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic, the vice trial collapsed last summer amid allegations that a high-priced prostitute was the mistress of a Scotland Yard detective.

The charges against Balla in the United States stem from his involvement with a Long Beach retail store he purchased in 1984. Prosecutors said Balla used the good credit rating of Knolls Vacuum & Sewing Center, a legitimate company, to order more than $1 million in electronic goods, food, clothing and exercise equipment.

He then resold the merchandise, but never paid for much of it.