SHEFFIELD TOWNSHIP -- The owner of the Clark Gas Station, 2425 North Ridge Road, told Lorain County sheriff's deputies he is out more than $15,000 because a man and woman used a child support debit card to buy things from his business between March and May of this year. Abdul Malik, the owner of the gas station, told deputies a company that writes him checks for credit card purchases would not pay him for $15,533 over the three months of purchases from the woman and man due to insufficient funds in the debit card account. Malik was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The woman, who has not been charged, told deputies she got a letter from the child support agency last month telling her not to use the card any more. She was given a debit card to use for child support instead of monthly checks, the report says. The case was referred to the Lorain City Prosecutor's Office.
An employee with Clark's corporate office, told deputies it appeared attendants at the gas station did not confirm the PIN number, allowing the card to be used as a valid card, the report says. She told deputies about $82,000 in purchases were made at the gas station using the child support debit card in the past year, according to the report.
When a deputy asked the woman if she realized she spent $82,000 at the station within one year, she started crying and said, ''If the card was no good, then why did they keep letting me use it,'' the report says. The woman told deputies her ex-husband owed her $43,000 in past child support and she thought that amount was on the card, the report says.
Lorain County Sheriff's Lt. Luis Silva could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Debit card replaced monthly checks statewide in 2005, said Scarlett Bouder, director or communications for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. There are no restrictions on what a person can buy with the card, she said.
''The person spends the money as they think is best for the child,'' Bouder said.
Both Bouder and Katrina Williams, fiscal supervisor for the Lorain County child support agency said they are not aware of any past similar problems. Child support funds are transferred to the debit card on a monthly basis, Bouder said.
A man who also used the woman's debit card told deputies he would try to find a way to pay back the gas station owner, the report says. The woman told deputies that she never knew the balance on the card. But people could check child support debit card balances online or by calling an 800 number, Bouder said.
Malik told deputies he would either press criminal charges or file a suit to get the money he was cheated out of, the report says. Bouder said they would work with the business owner and vendor, Affiliated Computer Services, to find out what may have went wrong.
According to the Lorain County Job and Family Services Web site, child support payments sent to the state are issued either as a direct deposit to a checking or savings account or an E-Payment Card where payments are deposited to a state issued electronic MasterCard which can be cashed at banks or used as debit cards at retailers. |
