Denise Gill, 39, and Michael Gill, 42, pleaded guilty last month to charges related to a retail theft racket they developed in order to boost profits in their Q-Mart store. Authorities said the Gills employed drug addicts from the Quakertown area as local shoplifters. They then purchased the health and beauty products their contacts stole to resell at a profit. (FILE PHOTO)
A Milford Township, Bucks County couple were sentenced Monday to jail time for concocting a scheme to buy and sell stolen items out of their Q-Mart-based business.
Michael Gill, 42, was sentenced to 11 to 23 months incarceration followed by three years of probation by Bucks County President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr.
Denise Gill, 39, was sentenced to 72 hours to 12 months in jail followed by three years of probation.
Both were also ordered to pay restitution of $1,469, payable to Target and Giant, the stores that donated items to Bucks County detectives as part of the investigation into the selling of stolen goods.
The Gills were charged in October after an investigation by detectives from the Quakertown Borough Police Department and the Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force found they had enlisted people suffering from opioid and methamphetamine addictions to steal health and beauty products from retail stores, which the couple then purchased at a fraction of the retail value and sold for a profit.
The Gills sold many of the stolen items through an eBay account associated with their store One Stop Health and Beauty Shop located at the Quakertown Farmers Market. The couple sometimes purchased stolen items at the store, and on other occasions took delivery of the items at other locations along John Fries Highway in Milford Township.
As part of the investigation, undercover law enforcement conducted multiple controlled sales of purportedly stolen items to the Gills. Police later recovered some of these items when executing search warrants at the Gills’ Q-Mart store and their County Line Road residence.
Michael Gill reported making between $2,500 and $5,000 each weekend in sales, including through the sale of stolen items, and buying about $1,000 in products from private sellers each week, according to a criminal complaint. Between March 2017 and March 2019, revenue from the eBay business came in at about $117,000.
Note: This article was originally published by the Bucks County District Attorney’s office on its Crimewatch page.
