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EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The owner of a popular Connecticut restaurant chain was arrested on a felony larceny charge, according to an arrest warrant obtained by News 8.
Gjinovefa “Gina” Luari, 33, who owns the restaurants “The Place 2 Be” with one location in West Hartford, two locations in Hartford and one in New Haven, allegedly wrote fraudulent checks to a restaurant equipment business.
According to the arrest warrant by East Hartford police, a complaint about Luari was filed in July by Richard Singer, the manager of Restaurant Equipment Paradise on Park Avenue in East Hartford.
He said that Luari, who was a common customer of his, wrote out two checks to his company: one for $2,620 and one for $8,201. When Restaurant Equipment Paradise went to deposit the checks, the bank informed him that the accounts to the checks were closed, the arrest warrant alleged.
Singer said that this was approximately the fifth time that Luari had written a bad check and not had the money, according to the arrest warrant.
He said that normally, Luari would provide a valid check a couple weeks later. When police spoke with Luari a few days later, she said that she got her lawyers involved and that Singer was not being “understanding,” and that she usually did business with the company’s owner, Kenneth.
She also mentioned that a judge was now involved, and that he gave Luari 30 days to pay back Restaurant Equipment Paradise. She was able to provide police proof of this through email and communication receipts.
She continued by telling police that she was waiting for her credit from Blue Back Square, which is the shopping center her West Hartford restaurant is in, to deposit in order to pay the remaining balance.
In August, Kenneth, the owner of Restaurant Equipment Paradise, said that the location he sold Luari equipment for was her Hartford location on Franklin Avenue — not the one in Blue Back Square. He said that Blue Back Square had nothing to do with this transaction, and claimed that Luari was lying, according to the arrest warrant.
Kenneth said that he and other members of the Restaurant Equipment Paradise team repeatedly contacted Luari via email and text reminding her about the checks, to which she didn’t respond.
He then went to the East Hartford Police Department saying that he wanted charges pressed against Luari because it had been over two months without payment.
On Sept. 17, Luari was arrested and charged with second-degree larceny and issuing a bad check over $2,000, according to court documents. She is being held on a $10,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 22.