Wausau Daily Herald: Two Face Charges After Allegedly Scamming Mullins Cheese Out Of $47,000
A Portage County farmer and a milk hauler face charges after allegedly altering milk quality and quantity reported to scam Mullins Cheese in Knowlton out of an estimated $47,000, according to court documents.
Shannon B. Pratt, 32, of Bancroft and Roger D. Karl, 55, of Rothschild are accused of falsifying the weight of milk collected from Pratt’s farm and mixing test samples with samples from other farms. They both were charged April 23 in Marathon County Circuit Court with theft by false representation, which carries maximum penalties of a $25,000 fine and a 10-year prison sentence.
Employees of Mullins began noticing discrepancies beginning in fall 2007 in the amount of milk reportedly being taken from the Pratt farm and the amount unloaded from the truck at Mullins, according to a criminal complaint. Mullins employees noticed that the amount of milk collected at the farm dropped by 1,000 pounds when another driver picked the milk up on Karl’s days off, police said. The amounts rebounded when Karl returned to work
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