Luling activist used as pawn in oil spill scam

Right after Katrina, Luling resident Adline Mott helped more than 100 people from the community who desperately needed jobs find work rebuilding the area. So when a similar situation presented itself regarding the BP oil spill, Mott immediately began making phone calls.

She worked around the clock and rounded up 88 people who were willing to pay $150 to receive the certification required to assist with oil cleanup efforts. Mott also sunk in $900 to buy a certificate for herself and her family members.

But according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Mott had become a tool of a 45-year-old scam artist named Cleveland Verner Jr. Once Verner received the $13,200 that Mott had rounded up, he disappeared.

It wasn’t until an alert went out for his arrest that Verner turned himself in. He is now charged with theft over $500 and is being held at the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center.
Mott said that she was introduced to Verner through her nephew.

“I had helped a lot of people find jobs during Katrina, so I thought that this was another chance to help out,” Mott said. “(Verner) told me that he worked for a company that was helping with the oil spill cleanup and that he needed a lot of workers.

“I always want to help my people, and that’s probably why he was able to pull one over on me so easy.”

Mott said she was told to gather as many workers as possible along with their ID and Social Security numbers. She was also asked to collect $150 from each applicant which would be used to obtain OSHA certificates.

“When I would gather up some workers, get their information and give him the money, he would provide me with certificates that looked professional,” Mott said.

Instead, the certificates were impressive forgeries, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

After seeing some of the certificates, Mott was convinced that everything was on the up and up. She called several residents from St. Charles who then told friends and family members in cities like Slidell and Lafayette.

“I had gathered over 100 people and 88 of them had paid the certificate fee,” Mott said. “I was so pleased that I was able to get that many people and I was even thinking that someone might want to hire me because I was so good at finding people work.”

Mott even took out a loan so that she could purchase a large van to ferry workers back and forth to the job site. After purchasing the van, which will end up costing her $610 a month, she went to a junk yard and lugged seats to her home so that they could be installed inside.

“I only got to use the van once when (Verner) told me to bring 15 workers to Cut Off for a job,” she said. “But after we drove there, he said they wouldn’t be able to work until the next day.”

She says that’s when Verner told her to meet him at Clearview Mall in Metairie. This time, he never showed up.

“That’s when I started to pray and I said ‘Lord, this doesn’t look good,’” she said.

Verner had given Mott a business card that had an address, but when she drove to the place listed, she figured out it was fake. Mott then went to the Better Business Bureau, who told her that it looked like she had been scammed.

Mott then contacted the Sheriff’s Office.

Word of the scam quickly spread throughout the community and when Mott returned home there were nearly 40 people waiting in her lawn.

“All these people trusted me, and I’m always the one people call when they need help finding work,” she said. “When I saw their faces, I knew I had let them down. That was what hurt the most.”

Mott had $1,400 to her name, but she began paying back as many people as she could until the money was gone. Her husband, who had just returned from work with his $400 paycheck, gave that money up as well.

“Most of the people I was trying to help don’t have much money and they just can’t afford to lose $150 because that’s money some of them had to borrow from other family members. All I wanted to do was help people,” Mott said as tears rolled her face. “If God came to me and asked me what I wanted most in the world, I would say that I wanted all those people to find work and to get their money back.”

Even though Mott lost $900 and will be faced with a loan payment that she won’t be able to meet, she is still hopeful that something positive will come out of this.

“Maybe someone will hear about this and help all those people get work…they really need it,” she said. “If they are able to get jobs, that will make all this pain that I’ve had to go through worth it.”

Sgt. Dwayne LaGrange, a spokesman for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, said that Mott was as much of a victim as anyone else.

“He took advantage of people that were simply seeking employment,” he said. “Through our investigation, our detectives were able to determine that he was not affiliated with any BP oil cleanup efforts.

“He developed this entire scam.”

LaGrange said that people should caution themselves following catastrophic events and should never make an impulsive decision to give someone money on the spot – no matter what they promise to deliver on.

“Anytime you’re approached with something that may seem suspicious you should request proper credentials and even call the Better Business Bureau to make sure the person or persons have proper licensing,” he said. “If you still feel uneasy, you should contact local law enforcement.”