BUSINESSMAN GUILTY OF EMBEZZLING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992                   TAG: 9201230320
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
BUSINESSMAN GUILTY OF EMBEZZLING
A Roanoke businessman who failed to pay more than $60,000 in sales tax collections was convicted Wednesday of embezzling the money from the state.
Alan Lee Holdridge received a five-year suspended sentence and was placed on probation after he pleaded guilty to the charge in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Holdridge, owner of the now-defunct Lee's Surf and Turf seafood retail business, was also ordered to pay taxes, interest and penalties in the amount of $66,624.
He is one of four people in Roanoke to be charged recently with embezzlement for failing to turn over tax collections - either to the city or the state.
Embezzlement charges usually involve a person being accused of taking money from his or her employer. But because business owners act as an agent of the city or state when they collect taxes, they can be held accountable when the money is not turned over.
Holdridge, 45, was charged with failing to turn over state sales taxes he collected at his Brandon Road business from November 1988 to April 1989.
C.E. Dew, a special agent with the state Department of Taxation, testified Wednesday that Holdridge told him he used the money to pay other bills.
"He said that if he got caught he would have the money to pay it back," Dew testified. "Needless to say, he didn't."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB