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Fourth man accused of theft via gas reward cards arrested on warrant

3 mins read
Kevin Farrington (Photo courtesy of Franklin County Detention Center)

WILTON – A Jay man accused of participating in the theft of $134,000 utilizing fraudulent gas reward points was arrested Sunday, after he called and turned himself in to police.

Kevin Farrington, 19 of Jay, was arrested on a warrant for theft by unauthorized taking, a Class C felony, on the evening of Aug. 25. Wilton Police Chief Heidi Wilcox confirmed Monday that Farrington had contacted police regarding the warrant and had been picked up for transportation to Franklin County Detention Center.

Farrington is the fourth man arrested in relation to the alleged theft, which reportedly involved opening reward card accounts, charging them with fraudulently-earned points and using them to purchase gas for customers that handed cash to six employees of Gould’s Service Station in East Wilton.

Four of the six employees were adults: Farrington; Zachary Armstrong, 19 of Wilton; Scott Lavoie, 53 of Wilton; and Preston Riley, 18 of Wilton. Armstrong, Lavoie and Riley were arrested on warrants for unauthorized taking or transfer, all Class B felonies, last week. The other two employees were juveniles; one has been charged via summons.

According to arrest affidavits filed with the Franklin Court system by Wilton Police Officer Ethan Kyes, the investigation began in early March with a complaint from the owner of Gould’s Service Station. Exxon Mobil had contacted the owner to inform him about allegedly fraudulently redeemed reward points, with the value of those points exceeding $100,000. The owner located receipts that he believe may have been involved in fraud: each reflected large purchases of propane at close to zero real-money cost.

Kyes began investigating the various elements of the rewards program and the business, determining that the total value of redeemed reward points claimed at the service station was $137,125.74. In May, Kyes received information from Exxon Mobile regarding the Internet Protocol addresses used to set up reward cards connected to the alleged theft.

Kyes used those IP addresses to locate local-area addresses and then interviewed employees of the service station. Per the affidavit filed by Kyes, a number of those individuals admitted to their own and other’s culpability in the theft.

Armstrong, Lavoie and Riley had their initial appearance in court last week. No pleas were entered, as any felony charge would need to first appear before a Franklin County grand jury. The next scheduled court date for those three men is Nov. 13.

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24 Comments

  1. I thought the daily Bulldog was a local site but I guess not if it doesn’t even know that Gould’s is located in Wilton not East Wilton!

  2. Or, they just made a mistake……..can you do us a favor Old Maineiac and give us the dates for your upcoming seminars on living a perfect mistake free life. Thank you-

  3. It would be refreshing for today’s media to return to the
    WHO-WHAT-WHERE-WHEN-WHY ? That has been the basic journalism code for over 200 years but rarely known or used today. The Bulldog should review that code and perhaps give more accurate news reporting.

  4. Hey Far North…..we all make mistakes, and we all pay for them. Hopefully they will also learn from them!!

  5. I was referring to the mistake the Old Maineiac sited, that the Bulldog
    made in town identification. Not the idiots that committed the crime.

  6. First let me say, how easy it must be to take a jab at someone and leave a “comment” hiding under some anonymous name. Secondly, I will say I personally know Kevin and his family and I’m honored to know them. Kevin is a great young man that fell into the pit of a bad decision. Has anyone reading this ever made a very bad choice in their life ??? I know I have a time or two and have both learned from and paid the price for them too. I pray and trust that Kevin will right his wrong the best he can, learn from this mistake, and be given the chance to do exactly that. At some point, everyone needs at least one re-do in life, a chance at redemption, a chance to better themselves. I believe in this young man, so let he who is without fault cast the first stone, because I will be standing shoulder to shoulder with him.

  7. Idiots really! You don’t know any of them and they have not yet been convicted of anything so how can you post that they committed this crime or any other crime! I feel that people that find it so easy to sit and judge with out facts other than what’s in the paper or not knowing the people they are judging are the ones that are lacking in intelligence! No one has heard their sides only what is published and no one knows for sure how much of that is accurate. It’s so easy to make a careless statement when your not effected or know anything about it! I also know two of these individuals personally… in fact I am the mother of one of them… and I do know what they are going through and the facts of the situation. I also know that they are not idiots they are in fact both very hard working young men that have done great in school and never been in trouble before. Thank you so much Bob for being the first to have a positive comment and showing support and understanding. They made poor judgment decisions and they are facing the consequences of, if in fact they are convicted of anything! But again they made a mistake and I too pray that they learn from this are able to turn it around and do better for the rest of their futures! The two that I know are great funny and truly kind hearted young men and yes they deserve the repercussions for their actions but they do understand it was wrong and they are facing it but not alone because they have strong families that love them very much and everyone deserves forgiveness and a second chance! So please if your going to judge remember no one is innocent whether it’s criminally or personally and someone gave you more than one chance… our families are going through a lot and these boys are struggling with their mistakes so keep in mind it’s a news paper article it doesn’t define them and no one has been convicted of a crime yet! I am honored to be this young persons mother and of course I do not like his choice but I see that he can do better and same for the other young man I know… they have their whole lives ahead of them and I have no doubt they will do what they have to in order to make this one bad mistake better and do great for their futures!

  8. Wow, I think i see part of the problem here. It will be nice to have a court of law, with an impartial judge, deciding this case. It is how our legal system works. What is written on these pages are opinions.
    Everybody has opinions. But not all opinions get printed. (thank goodness for that, could you imagine the hurt feelings??)

  9. Mother. You first say that they haven’t been convicted of anything, then go on to basically plead guilty for them. I’m not sure that is helpful.

  10. It’s not about opinions it’s about facts and people that do not have all the facts voicing opinions on people and situations they do not know anything about! As you have the right to defend your opinion… we have the right to defend ours, our families, and anything and anyone we care about as well. The media has posted only what they have got from one cop nothing more nothing less we do not know yet if theses accusations are even accurate or what is to come. My opinion is that people shouldn’t judge with out ALL the facts and ALL the sides of the story! It amazes me that everyone is so focused on this one situation where no one was actually hurt and it didn’t effect our community directly but there are no comments on the articles about drugs being brought into our community and people dying from them! Or drugs are are just old news so jump on a new band wagon because there’s nothing better too than degrade kids that made a mistake… if in fact they even did because no one knows yet how much of these articles or accusations are even true!

  11. The reporting seems fine to me. It uses words like “allegedly” and “reportedly”. The full facts will come out in court. The publishing of news is often going to displease the accused and that’s just a sad fact. Good to hear good things about the accused in the comments.

  12. Ed W I would never plead anything for anyone… my point was even if they did in fact do anything wrong or are ever convicted of anything that they shouldn’t be defined or judged by a mistake they made… if in fact they even made one… we do not know this for sure yet and if they did they too just like everyone else deserve forgiveness and a second chance! So many others are acting like they have been convicted already or trying to act like judge and jury which is simply ridiculous…bc as a person directly effected by this I do know for a fact most of what is being said is false and that the accusations and charges are ridiculous!! My point was that they are good people and there is so many great things about them and people shouldn’t be judging them by what’s printed in the article or judge anyone by mistakes they have made if they learn from them! Someone had to build a good case and I believe everyone will find that most of what is printed is untrue and unfair to all involved!

  13. Mother.
    Sometimes social media and newspaper comments are more damaging to the accused than no comments at all.
    And doubling down by trying to explain yourself seldom helps.
    Good luck.

  14. There is no such thing as a victimless crime. When corporations are victims of theft, they pass that loss onto consumers by raising the prices of goods and services or they pass the loss onto their employees by giving less raises or benefits.

  15. Mother-

    Mistakes have consequences and those include shame and embarrassment for yourself and your family. This is what keeps us from making same mistakes over again. It’s not comfortable or nice sometimes but it does not happen without your own choices being bad to begin with. I hope the best for your son and the others but most of all I hope the best for the man who’s trust and business was robbed.

  16. Just to be clear Gould’s lost no money! There was zero money stolen from Gould’s… the only victim was Exxon! Hence why it went on for months with out the owner of Gould’s realizing until Exxon went to him!! And I don’t see where anyone said there was no victims what was said was no person was actually hurt and our community wasn’t effected! And I also don’t see where anyone plead guilty I saw a family member saying if things DID happen they deserve a second chance and that people make mistakes! Big deal! How does anyone defending them hurt them? They aren’t out here saying anything the cops can use! No where in the law does anyone say people should be publicly shamed for anything this is a choice the daily bulldog allows! And the people that comment there opinions on topics they personally know nothing about except what’s written… Just saying!

  17. To Come on people!…..If you take something that is not yours it is called stealing!!

  18. So let me see if I understand this correctly. There is a group of people here that say they know the facts and the people involved. They are allowed to comment as they see fit.Then they also get to decide that others don’t know the facts or personally know the accused, and, this group then gets to decide what gets printed on a privately owned on-line news publication?

  19. I would like to point out that the time spent investigating this crime was time taken away from other investigations, such as drug sales and use. It DID hurt our community in that way.

  20. Come on people!
    August 30, 2019 • 1:05 pm
    Just to be clear Gould’s lost no money! There was zero money stolen from Gould’s… the only victim was Exxon! Hence why it went on for months with out the owner of Gould’s realizing until Exxon went to him!!

    Not clear at all….who exactly do you think Exxon is going to look for to pay this back? The kids with no money left Or the business owner? He is going to be held liable for employing them, so not only did he pay them but now he will pay for the mistake of hiring them in the first place. Take your time and think on it for a moment…

  21. Thanks ‘Come on people’! I thought I was the only commenter(that seldom gets printed) capable of understanding the written words of English. Pure, obviously Mr. Gould is not responsible for a worldwide rewards program but probably he should have noticed sooner that his income was from a bunch of rewards and very little cash!

  22. I would be shocked if Exxon says, no harm no foul…I suspect that Gould’s contract with Exxon would include some wording about fraud. I’m kind of surprised that anyone thinks this just goes away, reminds me of Kramer on Seinfeld “they just write it off” to whom though some may ask….

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