TARZANA, CALABASAS : 2 Parolees Held on Fraud Charges

Two San Fernando Valley parolees posing as Avon employees were arrested after they were caught trying to use a purchase-order scam to bilk a Camarillo company twice within a week, authorities said Tuesday.

Julian Barron, 29, of Tarzana and James Pezzalo, 49, of Calabasas were arrested Monday on suspicion of two counts each of grand theft, and one count of auto theft and parole violations, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Lazz.

Pezzalo was also wanted on a state escape warrant, he said.

Lazz said investigators suspect that the men are responsible for a string of at least four similar scams in Van Nuys, Torrance, Pasadena and Carson. Detectives tracked down the other cases by contacting companies whose names were found in a briefcase the suspects possessed, he said.

The arrests came after two men used the ruse Friday to allegedly steal $1,200 worth of printer toner cartridges from Quality Data Services, a computer supply company in Camarillo, Lazz said.

Alan Feder, a Quality Data sales representative, said a caller identifying himself as a purchase agent for the Avon Co. arranged for two purported employees to pick up the cartridges late Friday.

When the same person called again Monday, Feder said he was suspicious that Avon would need another order so quickly and called the cosmetics firm.

On Monday afternoon, when Barron and Pezzalo arrived to pick up another $1,500 worth of toner cartridges, Sheriff’s Deputy Harold Hanley observed the transaction while posing as a warehouse employee.

Hanley contacted detectives, who stopped the men in a stolen car a short distance away and arrested them without incident, Lazz said.