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Former Howland security company owner sentenced to 90 days in jail for forgery and failing to pay $268,179 to state
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Former security company owner Gregory A. Oakes, 52, of Howland has begun serving 90 days in the Trumbull County Jail for failing to pay Ohio sales taxes and Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation payments, forging documents and tampering with records.
Before Oakes was taken Tuesday from the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in handcuffs to the jail, he and his attorney indicated they had a check for $268,179 to give to the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department as restitution — $213,177 for not paying sales taxes and $54,430 for not making BWC payments.
Mike Burnett, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Oakes didn’t pay BWC fees, and charged sales taxes to his customers from 2008 to 2014 but didn’t forward those to the state, either.
Oakes, of Howland Springs Road, will be on probation for five years and could get as much as 31 years in prison if he fails to meet the requirements of his probation.
State investigators discovered Oakes was operating his Delta Elite and American Sentry security companies without a license after his licenses were revoked because of the BWC matter, Burnett said.
He is unemployed and not currently licensed to operate a security company, Burnett said. But one year ago, Oakes was still telling customers his companies were licensed, even though they were not, Burnett said.
Investigators visited companies in the Warren and Youngstown areas to notify them that Oakes’ companies were not licensed, and misdemeanor charges were filed in the municipal courts in Youngstown and Warren against Oakes.
He later pleaded no-contest in Warren to one misdemeanor licensing charge and was placed on one year’s probation. He pleaded no-contest to several counts in Youngstown and received one year of probation there, also.
Oakes began operating security companies in 1995 and started American Sentry Inc. in March 2006. The state revoked the license in April 2011.