Man Arrested on Suspicion of Bilking San Diego Firm

A 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of bilking a San Diego furniture business of $220,000 for a telephone system that was never installed, a spokesman from the San Diego County district attorney’s office said Monday.

Michael G. Woods, a resident of Cypress, was released on his own recognizance Monday after his arrest Friday, Cypress Police Lt. John Schaefer said.

Woods, a food manager at Los Alamitos race track in Orange County, is a co-defendant with Thomas Hopkins of Sacramento, a former San Diego business partner who helped operate a telecommunications company in 1983, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Lance Lewis.

Both were booked on multiple counts of grand theft, Lewis said, adding: “They accepted money from a furniture manufacturer, promising to install a telephone system. At the time, they told the manufacturer it would save thousands of dollars. But the phone equipment was never installed.”

Shortly after the alleged fraud, the telecommunications company was dissolved, Lewis said.

Woods is expected to be arraigned in San Diego Municipal Court, possibly on Wednesday, Lewis said. If found guilty, Woods could face seven years in jail.

The charges have nothing whatsoever to do with Woods’ employment at Los Alamitos Race Course, Lewis said.

A police spokesman said that the arrest has left the food manager “shaken and very distraught.”

Race track officials referred all inquiries to Hollywood Park Operating Co., owner of Hollywood Park Racetrack and Los Alamitos Race Course. But company officials declined to return telephone calls.