Portland clothier sentenced for fraud

PORTLAND — A 75-year-old women’s clothier who says he broke the law in a futile attempt to save his failing business has been ordered to serve four months in prison for credit card fraud.

Bernard Chapman, longtime owner of Bernie’s Fashions in downtown Portland, also was sentenced Wednesday to serve four months of house arrest on his release from prison and then be on probation for two years.

U.S. District Judge Gene Carter imposed a $10,000 fine and said Chapman must pay more than $50,000 in restitution to the unsuspecting credit card holders who were charged for purchases they never made.

Bernie’s Fashions had been a Congress Street fixture for 53 years but the decline of the downtown shopping district had caused business to drop off. The store closed last winter after authorities began to investigate the scam.

In pleading for no prison time for Chapman, defense attorney Mark Dunlap noted the age of his client and blamed the failing economy for driving him into making “the biggest mistake of his life.”

But Carter said he wanted the case to send a message that credit card fraud is never justified.

“For 50 years he set an example,” the judge said. “So should his sentence today set an example that this sort of conduct is unacceptable.”

Chapman, who pleaded guilty in January, apologized for his crime. “It was out of sheer desperation to keep a long-term business in operation,” he told Carter before sentencing.

Dunlap said the future of his client’s new store, Bernie Chapman’s Fashions, is “iffy” because Chapman has only one employee who will have to manage it while he is in prison.

The prosecution said Chapman bought credit card numbers from Erlon A. Waycotte, a former Portland fish company owner, for $25 apiece. Chapman charged 58 unsuspecting credit card holders for fake purchases totaling $50,667.90, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby.

Waycotte, 48, pleaded guilty in February to using and selling credit card numbers in a scheme to defraud card holders and is awaiting sentencing.