A Baltimore County man repeatedly accused of defrauding people with disabilities and the elderly pleaded guilty to perjury in Howard County Circuit Court.
Paris George, 52, was sentenced Wednesday for lying under oath and presenting fake documents in a prior case that won him an acquittal during a May 2005 trial.
During that trial, he was accused of defrauding a Clarksville couple of a $6,300 wheelchair lift, which George said he would install but never delivered, court documents state.
“It?s rare that we have cases like this ? perjury is hard to prove,” said Howard County Assistant State?s Attorney Brendan Clary.
Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced George to five years supervised probation and ordered him to pay $6,300 to the Clarksville family he was accused of defrauding.
“The defendant has great difficulty telling the truth,” Gelfman told prosecutors in court.
Prosecutors began investigating George?s documents after he won the 2005 acquittal ? using a false invoice to blame another company, the Alberta-based company, RAM Manufacturing Ltd., for failing to deliver the lift, Clary said.
But the Canadian company?s controller Sandy Smart wrote in a letter to Clary that George falsified the invoice from her company.
“I can say without a doubt that both of these documents are false,” Smart wrote.
George?s sentencing is not his first, court records show.
In 2004, a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge ordered George to pay a $75,000 fine for violations of the Consumer Protection Act.
The court ruled that George cheated residents out of medical equipment, including wheelchairs and stair lifts, by selling the items and then failing to provide them, according to the attorney general?s office.
George?s attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment.
