Police need your help in finding the eighth, 24-year-old Darlene Renee Ford. If you've seen her, contact Surfside Beach Police
During this season of giving to others, eight Grand Strand residents are charged with trying to get something for themselves. They're accused of defrauding a charity out of thousands of dollars.
These eight people are charged with giving false information, in some cases using fake ID's, to get money from the South Strand Helping Hand. Police say they scammed the charity out of nearly $4,000.
Along with food donations for the needy, South Strand Helping Hand also helps families with financial needs, like paying utility bills or rent. The charity asks for a signed, certified letter from a landlord to verify that someone who's asking for rent assistance really needs it.
But their president says recently, some clients misrepresented themselves to get rent money they didn't deserve. "What was happening here is clients were actually not truly landlords, they were other tenants and they were switching names and so forth and so they basically scammed us out of that," said Brad Thompson, South Strand Helping Hand.
Thompson says the incident is unfortunate but the agency can't let it taint their job of helping people.
The charity gives Thanksgiving meals to over 200 families and Christmas dinners to hundreds more and Thompson says helping hand will not curtail any of those efforts. "People are still being very generous and we're still having the ability to support the needy within the community," said Thompson.
He says helping hand will end the rent assistance program, though not necessarily due to this incident. Thompson says the agency will maybe do more follow up to check on clients from now on because he says South Strand Helping Hand has a mission to be good stewards of its money. "Obviously, we could have been better in this situation and that's always in the back of your mind. so I assume there's a lesson to be learned here."
Seven of the suspects have been taken into custody, charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses.
Police need your help in finding the eighth, 24-year-old Darlene Renee Ford. If you've seen her, contact Surfside Beach Police. Click here to see the pictures and read the names of the seven already arrested.
Surfside Police are encouraging charities to confirm all information provided by clients, and call police if they find any discrepancies.
