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Second owner of Dover-area cemetery pleads guilty to federal fraud charge

YORK COUNTY — The co-owner of a Dover-area cemetery pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife to defraud more than 200 customers out of at least $493,000...
thumbnail_theodore martin

YORK COUNTY — The co-owner of a Dover-area cemetery pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife to defraud more than 200 customers out of at least $493,000 over a six-year span beginning in about 2010.

Theodore Martin, 55, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in a federal courtroom in Harrisburg on Thursday, court documents show.

His wife, Arminda Martin, co-owner of the Suburban Memorial Gardens cemetery in Conewago Township, pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier this month.

The couple was accused of conning 223 customers out of nearly half a million dollars. The money they took from their customers was payments and pre-payments for burial services, cemetery plots, vaults, caskets, and grave markers, according to prosecutors.

They used the stolen funds to gamble at a number of casinos, prosecutors said.

In exchange for their guilty pleas, the Martins will serve prison time concurrently with other sentences, according to court documents. The Martins also agreed not to file any direct appeals in their federal cases.

They also are required to pay $493,000 in restitution, according to court documents.

The couple is currently serving time in Ohio prisons for running the same scam at two cemeteries they own in that state. Ted Martin is serving a five-year prison term; Arminda Martin is serving 4.5 years.

 

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