OXNARD : Store Penalized Over Sale of Checks

A downtown Oxnard store that sold ordinary checks as money orders has paid a $10,000 penalty and agreed to stop the practice, the Ventura County district attorney’s office said Monday.

El Paisano, a general store at 106 E. 5th St., had a sign in its window advertising Travelers Express money orders, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael D. Schwartz said. But what the company sold to about 8,000 customers--mostly Spanish-speaking laborers--were ordinary checks drawn on its account at Security Pacific Bank, Schwartz said.

To make them seem more like real money orders, the checks were printed with the letters “M.O.” and the dollar amounts were entered by machine, Schwartz said.

All of the checks, which cost $1 apiece, were apparently good, Schwartz said. But the practice was false and misleading, and the company lacked required state licenses to sell checks, he said.

An undercover investigation began after another merchant complained, Schwartz said.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne on Monday issued a permanent injunction against the store’s owners, Manuel Perez and Minerva Estrada Perez. The $10,000 penalty will go to the county’s general fund.