Police officers arrested a man for fraudulently purchasing a boat engine at a local marine shop on St. Thomas, the V.I. Police Department reported.
Economic Crime Unit detectives started investigating a complaint against Alvin V. Battiste III on Aug. 21. They discovered that Battiste used two different credit card numbers to manually purchase a 70-horsepower boat engine from Off Shore Marine. The total cost of the engine was $10,346.35, according to the police report.
The investigation revealed that Battiste is not an authorized user on either credit card, and the bank disputed the transactions for fraud. Additionally, one credit card number is registered to a resident of California, and the other is registered to a resident of Florida, the police report stated.
On Monday, Battiste, 29, was arrested and charged with two counts of grand larceny, one count of receipt of money, goods, and services obtained by fraudulent use of credit cards, and one count of interfering with an officer discharging his duties, the report stated.
Battiste could not post the $20,000 bail and was turned over to the Bureau of Corrections pending his advice of rights hearing, it said.
On Tuesday, Battiste was advised of his rights and the bail remained at $20,000. He did not post bail after the advice of rights hearing and he remains in the custody of the Bureau of Corrections, it said.
