Funeral Home Owner In North-Central CT Charged With 1st-Degree Larceny

NORTH-CENTRAL CT — The owner of several funeral homes in north-central Connecticut was arrested Sunday following an embezzlement investigation by state police.

Philip Pietras, 51, of Coventry, turned himself in at the state police barracks in Colchester. He was charged on a warrant with first-degree larceny, a Class B felony, and was released after posting a $50,000 cash/surety bond. He is due to appear April 14 in Rockville Superior Court.

Pietras owns Bassinger & Dowd Funeral Home in East Windsor, Burke-Fortin Funeral Home in the Rockville section of Vernon, Tolland Memorial Funeral Home and Coventry-Pietras Funeral Home.

State police began an investigation last October, which determined Pietras was inappropriately using funds for himself that were given by the victims to his business. It was concluded Pietras had taken more than $81,000 of funds that victims provided to the business, state police said.

According to a heavily-redacted affidavit supporting Pietras' arrest, eight clients had opened pre-payment funeral and burial accounts with the funeral homes, with the purpose of opening a trust account via an escrow agent. The accounts accrue interest over time.

A service which provides assistance to individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities noticed a discrepancy involving a client payment to Pietras, in which a check was submitted to the funeral home and cleared by the bank, but was never deposited into the trust account. Investigation revealed "eight clients had substantial differences between the amount of money invested, and what was present in their accounts, to include several clients who Pietras Funeral Home never opened accounts for," according to the affidavit.

In total, $81,300 was missing from clients' accounts, ranging from $4,500 to $15,700, according to the affidavit.

A considerable amount of personal expenditures were found across several of Pietras' accounts, including destinations typically associated with gambling, including Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Az., Clearwater, Fla. and Springfield, Mass. A number of charges for restaurant and shopping ventures across Connecticut were also revealed, according to the affidavit.