Jeweler Accused of Making False, Misleading Claims in Diamond Ads : Oxnard: D.A.’s office says investigators found that George P. Thompson Jr. knowingly overstated quality of his gems in print and broadcast advertising.

The district attorney’s office on Monday filed a lawsuit contending that jeweler George P. Thompson Jr. made “untrue” claims and “misled the public” in advertisements for his diamond shop in Oxnard.

Thompson, known throughout Ventura County for aggressive print and broadcast ads for his George Thompson Diamond Co., issued a statement denying the charges and blasting them as a “strong-arm, pre-Christmas filing . . . precipitated by a large outside jewelry retailer that was losing market share to the truth.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mitchell Disney said investigators had documented at least 10 to 15 claims that Thompson knew or should have known were false or misleading. Disney said each claim had been aired many times to thousands of viewers, listeners and readers in the county between 1992 and 1995.

“George Thompson’s competitors are getting killed and this is the upshot,” said Glenn Campbell, Thompson’s attorney. “He’s going to stand by his advertising and his pricing.”

In advertisements, Thompson claims to be a “national major manufacturer of jewelry” and to have “prices lower than L.A.’s Wholesale Jewelry Mart.” He also compares merchandise with what he says are similar pieces at stores such as Bullocks, J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward, and says he saves consumers up to 80%.

Disney said the 10-month investigation into Thompson’s advertisements was spurred by a number of complaints.

“The nature of this case is not that he’s selling junk, but that he’s comparing his merchandise to other jewelers, which we’ve determined to be unfair because the merchandise is not really the same,” Disney said. “It’s especially unfair because the average consumer does not purchase diamonds very often.”

The prosecutor said his office tried to work out its complaints with Thompson’s attorneys, but said they appeared more interested in “buying time” to get past the holiday season than in addressing problems in the advertisements.

“Every hour on the hour there’s another ad on [radio station] KVEN. . . . The media is saturated because he’s doing his Christmas blitz,” Disney said. “It does not make sense to let him continue to make money off advertisements that appear to be false.”

Disney said he planned to ask for an injunction to prevent Thompson from airing advertisements with suspect claims, but Campbell said that injunction should not be granted before a full hearing.

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Undercover county investigators purchased two rings from Thompson’s retail outlet on the 14th floor of the Ventura County National Bank tower, then had them examined by Cosmo Altobelli, a retail jeweler and appraiser from North Hollywood retained by the district attorney’s office.

“It was a major difference between them--between his claim of what his pieces were worth and what they were actually worth,” Altobelli said in an interview.

Altobelli said he also found the competitors’ rings referred to in Thompson’s ads to be “superior in diamonds as well as settings.”

Thompson denied the charges, saying that carat weights are stamped into the jewelry for easy comparison and that “the D.A.’s alleged appraiser is undoubtedly wrong or strongly biased.”

The complaint requests penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, but Disney said he could not quantify the number of violations.

“It’s a violation every time the claim is communicated to a person, whether or not the person responds,” he said. “We’re going to ask the judge to do something reasonable. We’re not looking to put anyone out of business if they can run their business legitimately.”