Gas station attendant spent thousands with customer credit cards, say police

LAKEHURST – An attendant at a Route 70 gas station is accused of photographing customers’ credit cards and using the information to make thousands of dollars in purchases, authorities said.

Sukhchain Singh of Brooklyn was charged with five counts of fraud in a civil complaint and theft and fraudulent use of a credit card in a criminal complaint, Lakehurst Police Chief Matthew Kline and Ocean County Department of Consumer Affairs Director Ronald Heinzman said in a statement.

The thefts began in August at the

Fuel 4 gas station at 99 Route 70 in in the borough and were last reported in April, Klein and Heinzman said.

After receiving a complaint about a possible customer theft with the use of a device that skimmed data from credit cards at one of the Fuel 4’s gas pumps, Lakehurst police notified the consumer affairs department.

The scam involved the lower-tech method of photographing the credit cards, investigators and police found.

Department investigators and Lakehurst police discovered that the gas station management fired Singh in April when becoming aware of the allegations. Working with authorities, the owner drew Singh into the office with a promise that he would get his old job back, Klein and Heinzman said. The county investigators and the borough police were waiting when he arrived, they said.

Singh was taken to Ocean County Jail and released since.

Singh, an Indian national who once lived in Lakehurst, faces up to $50,000 in fines on the civil charges alone.

Kline and Heinzman are urging anyone with information on the case to call Lakehurst Police Officer Christian Hernandez at 732-657-7811 or Department of Consumer Affairs Investigator Anthony Fontana at 732-929-2105.