A a 30-year-old member of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce and owner of two businesses has been charged with grand theft and elder abuse for allegedly charging an elderly woman suffering from paranoia and early dementia more than $300,000
for a $25,000 security system.
Adam Michael Margaros, who also faces a
sentencing enhancement for theft of over $200,000, is also accused of having told the 74-year-old woman the government had secretly installed listening devices in her home.
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Margaros, who owns CCTV Masters and LYTE Solutions, had actually been recommended by another security company to install an $1,800 system.
He instead installed a keyless entry system and 20 cameras
hooked up to a computer and monitors in the woman's home and charged her more than
$320,000, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, which claims an independent security firm estimated the gear's true value (including installation) at around $25,000.
It should have been obvious the customer suffers from paranoia with early signs of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, according to the case against the installer.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
do you have the case number
for ryan trottier