The Law Office of George M. Derieg successfully negotiated a plea agreement where a defendant allegedly embezzled over $48,000 from a government agency. The client will most likely not have to spend any time in jail, pay restitution, and be on probation.
BART agent convicted in eBay ticket-selling scheme
(10-10) 20:49 PDT HAYWARD — A BART station agent and his wife have been convicted in connection with a long-running scheme in which she used the online marketplace eBay to sell tickets he had collected from riders, authorities said Thursday.
Avery Nulph, 40, pleaded no contest last Friday in Alameda County Superior Court to felony grand theft. His wife, 47-year-old Gladys Nulph, pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit grand theft.
Both were given five years of probation and must pay more than $48,000 in restitution to BART by January – or else face up to a year in jail.
Investigators determined that from 2010 to 2013, Avery Nulph collected hundreds of tickets while working as a BART station agent. The agents have the discretion to allow riders to exit a station if the value of their tickets is within a dollar of the amount required.
In those cases, the agents are supposed to take the tickets, destroy them and put them in a bag that is picked up, officials said.
But Alameda County district attorney’s Inspector Tom Simonetti suggested in a court affidavit that Avery Nulph collected the low-value tickets and then added value to them while he was working.
The upgraded tickets were then sold as new on Gladys Nulph’s eBay account, with money from the sales deposited into her Wells Fargo bank account, Simonetti wrote.
Avery Nulph still faces possible discipline and termination from BART.
