JACKSON, Miss. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell have announced the sentencing of a Ridgeland businessman for mixing lower and higher grade fuels at a gas station in Ridgeland.
Bradley Morris, of Fleet Morris in Ridgeland, entered a no contest plea to one count of Misdemeanor False Pretenses during sentencing before Judge Cynthia Brewer in Madison County Court on Dec. 29, 2006. He was ordered to pay $109,000 in investigative costs and penalties to the state and to spend 10 days incarcerated in the Madison [image-nocss] County Detention Center.
Morris was alleged to have mixed 1,022 gallons of 87 octane gasoline with gasoline in an 89 octane tank at one of his stores in December 2005. The case was brought to the Office of the Attorney General by the state Department of Agriculture after a tip from an insider that Morris was mixing lower-grade octane with higher-grade octane.
With the escalating price of gas, people should, at the very least, get what they have paid for, said Spell.
The defendant in this case came to us and admitted fault, claiming all of the other jobbers were doing it, said Hood. That is why I am calling on all truck drivers and convenience store clerks to call our consumer hotline [(800) 281-4418] to report this type of crime. Due to this defendant's cooperation, we only made him do 10 days in jail, but anyone caught hereafter will have to do much more time. If this is a widespread practice, our office and the Department of Agriculture intend to stop it.
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