The elderly couple accused of bilking inn owners across eastern Massachusetts out of thousands of dollars last summer had their Rockport charges continued without a finding for two years in Gloucester District Court yesterday, but were ordered by Judge Joseph Jennings to pay $1,291 in restitution.
Benjamin E. Wolff, 79, and his wife, Jane, 72, were each facing charges of larceny by check over $250 and defrauding an innkeeper of over $100. The charges against the couple stemmed from a November incident in which Rockport police say they wrote a bad check to the Cape Hedge Inn on South Street in Rockport.
The couple stayed in the inn for two weeks last June.
According to reports, Benjamin Wolff wrote a check for $1,041 to the inn before leaving after having spent 13 nights at the establishment. His wife had written a check for $250 earlier in their stay.
The couple had explained they didn't want to use a credit card because they were financing a new house. It wasn't until after the Wolffs left Rockport that their story began to fall apart.
The first check for $250 came back for insufficient funds, and that's when inn owner Michael Beaton knew the check for more than $1,000 was probably lost.
After appearing on the Massachusetts Most Wanted list and in television news reports, the couple turned themselves in to authorities in Concord on Jan. 8 and were arraigned in Concord District Court that day.
The Wolffs had also faced charges in Newburyport District Court on multiple counts of larceny and fraud of an inn and several Newburyport merchants. The judge there also ordered them to pay restitution.
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at 978-283-7000 x 3451 or jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
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