The owner of the Jockey Cap Country Store in Fryeburg will serve three months in jail for pocketing $370,000 of state sales tax between 2007 and 2017, the Maine Attorney General’s Office said.
Robert Quinn, 48, was sentenced Friday to four years, but will serve only three months in jail after he pleaded guilty in the Oxford County Unified Criminal Court to theft, tax evasion and failure to pay state tax. Quinn intentionally underreported both sales at the gas station, convenience store and liquor store, as well as the amount of taxes collected by large amounts, the Attorney General’s Office said.
The state recovered $206,000 from Quinn, but he was ordered to pay an additional $300,000 in restitution to cover the remaining debt and interest.
“Business owners are entrusted to collect sales tax and properly pay the sales tax to Maine Revenue Services,” Attorney General Aaron Frey said. “My office will continue to pursue business owners who, for personal gain, abuse the trust the state places in them.”
The business, right outside Fryeburg’s village, used to include a small hotel frequented by hikers headed to the nearby White Mountain National Forest, but that part of the business closed in the fall of 2014.
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