Valley Roundup : Sherman Oaks : Man Surrenders in Home-Alarm Case
Two operators of a Sherman Oaks company and a St. Helena, Calif. man are facing more than two dozen charges, including grand theft and making false statements, in connection with the sale of burglar alarms.
The Los Angeles city attorney’s office said the two men and one woman conspired to swindle senior citizens who were targeted in the sale of home alarm systems they did not need.
Melvin Taylor Hamp, 69, of St. Helena is accused of leasing his alarm company operator’s license to Jeffrey Roy Bagg, who ran his business under the names ITT Security Inc. and ITT Security Systems Inc.
Hamp surrendered to authorities Tuesday and posted $25,000 bail in Los Angeles Municipal Court.
Bagg, 44, of Rancho Park and Katrina Carmel Jackman, 37, of Glendale, were arrested last month by agents with the California Department of Consumer Affairs Division of Investigation. They are co-defendants in the case and free on $50,000 bail.
The city attorney’s office also charged companies operated by the defendants in the 25-count criminal complaint. Those listed included International Technologies Today Inc., ITT Security Inc. and ITT Security Systems Inc., Deputy City Atty. P. Greg Parham said.
“The most egregious aspect of the case was that this was an unlicensed company taking advantage of seniors by employing extreme scare tactics and misleading them about the quality and value of the product they were selling,” Parham said.
Parham said there were 18 victims, including residents of Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Bakersfield, Inyo, Kern, Palm Springs, Ridgecrest, Palm Desert and Orange.
In one case, Parham said, an 84-year-old Ridgecrest woman paid $5,000 for an ITT Security Inc. home-alarm system and signed a five-year monitoring contract for $3 a month when she was protected by an alarm system in the retirement community where she was living.
Jackman has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 19 in Los Angeles Municipal Court. Bagg and Hamp will be arraigned Thursday, Parham said.
