Husband, Wife Write 22 Bad Checks to Wegmans, Receive Over $4,500 in Merchandise: Police

North Penn Now Staff•

Richard Stancl, 44, left, and Petrina Stancl, 42, right.

A husband and wife duo from Hatfield Township are facing dozens of criminal charges, after an investigation uncovered they had allegedly written 22 bad checks to Wegmans Food Market in Montgomery Township over a three-month period.

According to the criminal complaint, Montgomery Township Police were contacted by police in Upper Dublin Township on Aug. 27 regarding an investigation into check fraud. Investigators stated that 42-year-old Petrina Stancl, of Hatfield, had allegedly issued a $241.61 check to George’s Market on Aug. 16, and the check was returned due to the account being closed in June 2017. While investigating that check, Upper Dublin Police learned that 14 other checks had allegedly been written from Stancl’s closed account, all of which occurred at the Wegmans at Montgomery Mall, the report states.

Montgomery Township Police reached out to the third-party payment processor for Wegmans a few days later, and learned of eight more checks that had allegedly been passed, bringing the total to 22 checks between June 11 and Aug. 13. Investigators then viewed surveillance footage from each incident, and learned that 44-year-old Richard Stancl—Petrina’s husband—was allegedly involved in the scheme, according to the report.

In total, $4,522.83 worth of merchandise was stolen across 22 incidents at Wegmans, police said. Montgomery Township Police agreed to charge for the incident in Upper Dublin Township, which brought the incident total to 23 and total loss of merchandise to $4,764.44, according to the report.

Police allege that Richard Stancl was present for at least $1,657.41 worth of fraud across eight of the incidents, and Petrina Stancl was present for at least $3,967.90 across 19 of the 23 incidents, the report states. None of the merchandise was recovered, police said.

As a result of the investigation:

Petrina Stancl has been charged with 19 felony counts of theft by deception and 19 felony counts of receiving stolen property, along with 19 misdemeanor counts of bad checks and another dozen conspiracy charges.
Richard Stancl has been charged with four misdemeanor counts of theft by deception, four misdemeanor counts of bad checks, four misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property and two dozen misdemeanor conspiracy charges.

Both Richard and Petrina Stancl were arraigned on Nov. 12 by Magisterial District Judge Andrea Duffy, who set bail at $5,000 unsecured for each. A preliminary hearing for the couple is scheduled for noon on Dec. 12.

(Editor’s note: All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause, and reflects the point of view of the police. Should the defendant choose to issue a public statement, or is later found not guilty or has the charges dropped, we will update this article accordingly.)