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Lawrenceville jeweler accused of pocketing customer's consignment sales, not completing custom work

The Lawrenceville Police Department said the theft case involves Timothy New, the owner of The Bench Jeweler.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A Lawrenceville jewelry store owner has been charged and his business is closed after police said he didn't make good on some of his sales. Now, officers are tying to find some of his alleged victims.

The Lawrenceville Police Department said the theft case involves Timothy New, the owner of The Bench Jeweler on Crogan Street.

Credit: Lawrenceville Police

"We had several customers reach to us that they had entered into a business agreement with a suspect and never saw their money and couldn't reach him," Lt. Jake Parker said of Lawrenceville Police.

Officers said customers would take jewelry to New, which was to be sold on consignment for a small fee. He's accused of using the money he received for his own use. In other cases, police said customers paid New to design custom jewelry, but he didn't complete the work. 

Parker said once they received complaints, investigators started digging.

"They starting finding that some items had been pawned and no money was ever returned to the person that was waiting on a consignment sale," he added.

According to police, The Bench Jeweler has now closed its doors and has no current business licence in the state. 

11Alive went to the business Wednesday evening and saw a note on the door saying the jeweler "has to relocate to a new location in Lawrenceville, we will be temporarily closed to move and set up."

The noted continued to say "if we have something of yours, it is still with Tim the owner." A number was left for customers to contact him.

However, offices told 11Alive they were able to recover some of the items after they secured a search warrant for the business and the owner's residence. He was arrested and charged with theft by taking and nine counts of theft by conversion.

Now police want potential victims to come forward.

"We're hoping that people who have entered into an agreement and haven't got their jewelry back or didn't get the financial gain they were hoping for will reach out to us and let us know details about their business agreement," Parker said.

"A lot of people just want their jewelry back because they're not going to see the money now at this point," he added.

New's customers are encouraged to reach out to Det. Dena Pauly with details about your transactions with him for consignment or repair. You can contact the detective at dpauly@lawrencevillepd.com or call at 770-670-5110. 

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