MIAMI (WSVN) - The owner of a controversial booting company has been arrested after he was accused of defrauding over $700,000 from the City of Miami.
The State Attorney’s Office said Andrew Bleacher and his wife Gabriella, the owners of Premier Booting Services turned themselves in to police Thursday morning.
“Nothing aggravates the average citizen more than learning that people or companies are stealing from the government,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
The couple conned the city out of about $700,000. Their company is supposed to stop improperly parked cars with a boot.
“Andrew Bleacher and his wife systematically and deliberately underreported the number of cars they booted and the money that they withheld from the City of Miami.”
Premier Booting Services and other contracted companies are required the pay the city $25 for each car they boot.
However, the Bleachers would boot vehicles and not inform the city or pay the city its fee.
They pocketed close of $1 million over four years.
Premier Booting Services has been the focus of several 7News investigations after people complained their cars were wrongfully booted and towed from city lots.
“For you guys to be here, following this up, there must be many, many complaints,” said one man in 2015.
“I think it’s terrible. I think it’s just a money making game for them,” said another man in 2015.
Bleacher spoke with 7’s Carmel Cafiero in 2015 and tried to explain why his employees were targeting drivers who paid for parking but did not show a receipt on the dashboard.
“It’s been a few weeks. I’m not the parking operator, but they changed the system to play by plate maybe four or five weeks ago,” he said in 2015.
They went by the book when it came to the actual booting. “The fairness or unfairness of Premier Booting Services’ actions are not the subject of our criminal investigation,” Fernandez Rundle said.
According to investigators, the couple used all the cash to live a lavish lifestyle. They face up to 95 years behind bars.
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