Pair Accused of Mobile-Home Sales Fraud

A mother and daughter have been arrested for allegedly bilking prospective mobile-home buyers in Santa Clarita out of $22,000, police said Wednesday.

Catherine Walker, 46, was arrested Tuesday at a mobile-home park in Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Howard Fairchild said. Walker’s daughter, Gina Egyed, 26, was arrested Wednesday after arriving at the sheriff’s station in Santa Clarita to see her mother, Fairchild said. Egyed did not know that she was being sought, he said.

Walker and Egyed ran Classic Mobile Homes of Santa Clarita until February, when the state revoked their licenses after an administrative law judge ruled they had defrauded customers.

The cases were referred to the Sheriff’s Department, which conducted its own investigation. Last week, the district attorney’s office filed a complaint alleging that Walker and Egyed stole more than $22,000 from three customers since last summer. The complaint alleges that in two cases, the women refused to return deposits from customers who had been unable to secure financing for the mobile homes. In a third case, Walker allegedly took $9,000 from a buyer and allowed him to move in, but then failed to transfer the title of the mobile home.

Walker was charged Wednesday with three felony counts of grand theft and six misdemeanor counts, two for failing to deposit funds into escrow accounts and four for operating the business without all the appropriate state licenses.

Egyed will be charged with two felony counts of grand theft and two misdemeanors.

If convicted, they each face maximum prison sentences of about four years, Deputy Dist. Atty. Brad Stone said.

Walker and Egyed, who had been sought since last week, were released Wednesday on $20,000 bail each, according to documents filed in Newhall Municipal Court.