Arrest Made In 'Complex' Westport Fraud Case Involving Liquor Sales

WESTPORT, CT — A 25-year-old Brooklyn, New York man was arrested by Westport police last week on identity theft and related charges, after authorities said he used fraudulent credit cards to buy "high end liquor" that he then resold.

Eric Chau was arrested on multiple counts of third-degree identity theft, illegal possession of personal identity information, and illegal trafficking in personal identity information.

The Aug. 31 arrest was Chau's second by Westport police this year. In May, he was arrested on fourth-degree larceny and credit card fraud charges in what Westport said led to the August arrest.

Chau was accused in May of using fraudulent credit cards to buy liquor from BevMax on the Post Road East in Westport, and having those purchases delivered to him by Instacart to an address in Westport.

"The complainant reported that he became increasingly suspicious of orders he was receiving for delivery between BevMax and a person seated in a car in front of a house under construction on George Street," Westport Police Lt. Eric Woods said at the time. "The complainant reported that they had made several high dollar deliveries of liquor to this person in their car."

According to Woods, BevMax employees told police that "each of the orders was made with different credit card numbers and the credit card numbers were not associated with Mr. Chau."

Police believed that "Chau was either making the purchases online using fraudulent credit cards or was simply the person responsible for accepting the deliveries and bringing them back to New York City."

After that arrest, Westport police kept investigating and obtained search warrants for Chau's seized cell phones, and soon determined that he was implicated "in a larger, more complex, fraud involving the purchase and sale of 'high end' liquor with fraudulent credit cards."

"The scheme involved the trafficking of personal identifying information to secure or create fraudulent credit cards," Woods said. "Mr. Chau would allegedly use these fraudulent credit cards to buy 'high end' liquor and then sell it at heavily discounted prices. The search of the cell phones showed that Mr. Chau was allegedly committing these crimes in many states along the East Coast."

On Wednesday, Woods told Patch Chau is accused of using social media to set up sales.

"I do not believe there will be any further arrests connected with this case," Woods said in an email to Patch. "There were no residents, that we could find, that were victims of the ID theft."

Chau was released after posting bond on bail of $100,000, and he was scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on Wednesday.