Store Manager Admits Switching Lab Grown for Natural
January 18, 24
(IDEX Online) - A jewelry store manager in New York admitted selling lab grown diamonds as natural, and stealing more than $137,000 in jewelry from customers.
Laura Bee, aged 59, switched the $15,000 natural diamond in a friend's engagement ring for a $2,000 lab grown when she took it for repair.
She pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the third degree while working at Ever Love Jewelry in Huntington Village, Long Island, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney.
"Over almost three years, this defendant used her position as the manager of a jewelry store to scam her friends and unsuspecting customers," Tierney said in a press release. "This defendant took advantage of her position for personal gain, and my office will continue to prosecute professionals who steal from their customers."
Bee admitted that between September 2019 and June 2022, friends gave her jewelry items worth $31,000 to sell. She kept these items despite numerous demands for the proceeds of the sale or the return of the items.
Between October 2020, and August 2022, she sold various diamond engagement rings to customers who thought they were buying rings with natural diamonds.
One victim told the News12 channel: "She took my engagement ring. She was resetting it. She took the stone out, gave me a lab diamond back."
Bee will be sentenced in March.
Pic of Bee courtesy Suffolk County Police