A Clearwater, Florida, man was arrested Monday after allegedly using a company credit card to purchase $31,000 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets, according to law enforcement officials.
Warren Alexander Johnson, 47, is charged with conspiracy to defraud people of between $20,000 and $50,000, according to Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office records.
FOX 13 in Tampa reports that officials say Johnson was a truck driver for All Phase Paving, and the affidavit states that the company’s owner was responsible for the number of payments made on one of the company’s credit cards in September 2023. It turns out they discovered $1,000 worth of fraudulent charges.
The company’s owner told police that only three people, including Johnson, had credit cards linked to Zenso Pavement’s bank accounts.
He added that the card is intended to be used only for work-related charges.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
Because each card had a different number, charges could be traced back to the employee who owned the particular card.
The owner checked the credit card statement and realized Johnson’s card had been used for $31,693 in charges across multiple convenience stores, the sheriff’s office said.
The owner also investigated the tracking information on the company car Johnson drove and determined it correlated with the credit card charges.
the lawmakers said. When the owner confronted Johnson about the credit card charge, he admitted that he had used the card to purchase lottery tickets.
The stores did not have surveillance video to share, but authorities said a manager at one store admitted that Johnson frequently drove his work truck to the store.
A manager told investigators that Johnson used a credit card to purchase scratch-off tickets.
