An Orange Beach business owner is in hot water.

Tillie Pan, whose legal name is Judith Ashley Roberts, was arrested and booked into Baldwin County Jail on Jan. 25 on three charges of fraudulent use of a credit/debit card and three counts of theft of property in the first degree.

She is the co-owner of an Orange Beach catering company and another food-related business in Orange Beach.

The charges stem from an ongoing investigation by the Orange Beach Police Department. The investigation was triggered after OBPD received reports from multiple victims of fraudulent credit card charges totaling over $135,000.

“We had a few victims come forward who had some charges on their credit cards, and they knew they did not make those charges,” Orange Beach Police Investigator Lt. David Johnson said. “They were able to trace them (the credit card charges) back to Mrs. Pan.”

Johnson, the detective on the case, said OBPD has been actively investigating over the last three weeks. The name of the business is not being released at this time.

“Right now, we can’t say the business itself is involved. We can only say it is Mrs. Pan, and because of that we don’t want to take anything away from that business without any type of verification that it was the business itself that committed the act,” Johnson explained. “We don’t want to hurt that business if the other people involved in the business had nothing to do with this.”

The investigation is ongoing, and the OBPD is still collecting evidence. Johnson said he is not sure if there are more victims but that it is possible.

“The next step for her will be she will be summoned to court for either a preliminary hearing if she requests one, or we will go to the grand jury or we will go to trial.”

This is not the suspect’s first time dealing with these charges. A search of her name both online and in Baldwin Jail View revealed she was charged with similar crimes in New York City in May 2002. She was charged with stealing over $500,000 from her employer, Sephora U.S. She was arrested in Mobile.

In a newspaper article in the Daily News dated April 16, 2004, Ashley (Tillie) Roberts pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced April 15, 2004, to two to six years in jail.

Johnson said that individuals who have had dealings with a catering company in Orange Beach in the last six months and up to one year should check their credit card and bank statements for any unusual activity. If you have any questions, information or feel you may have been a victim of these frauds, please contact the Orange Beach Police Department at (251) 981-9777.