Fraud allegations in Park City ticked higher as lodging firms went bust

(Park Record) The Park City Police Department in 2009 received, on average, nearly two complaints of fraudulent activity each week, only a slight increase from the year before but a figure that illustrates the continuing misery wrought by the recession.

The 99 cases reported to the police last year were up from the 90 in 2008, the year that fraud complaints filed with the Police Department spiked as the recession took hold. The numbers from the last two years outpace those in earlier years by a wide margin. The reports ranged as low as the teens in a year at the start of the last decade. The numbers are outlined in the Police Department's recently released annual crime report.

Police Chief Wade Carpenter acknowledged complaints against a few major players in the lodging industry accounted for many of the fraud reports. He said the lodging industry was the target of between 30 and 35 of the 99 cases, roughly a third of the year's total.

"If you're not careful when you're doing business, people make assumptions they know who they're dealing with," Carpenter said.

Caution is needed in business dealings, but he "wouldn't hesitate to do business here at all," the police chief said.

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