By Angie Thompson, Senior Reporter
TIFTON — The Tift County Sheriff’s Office has charged Charles Ray Goodman with another count of theft by deception after an Ashburn man reported Tuesday that he gave Goodman a $27,000 check Feb. 13 to pay for a double-wide mobile home from Ray Goodman Home Center and it hasn’t been delivered.
Goodman, 59, was arrested in January 2008 and charged with 15 counts of first-degree forgery and 17 counts of theft by deception. A Tift County grand jury indicted Goodman on all of the charges in May 2008.
Authorities charged then that 10 victims of the scheme suffered losses ranging from $6,000 to over $37,000 and totaling more than $200,000. There were allegedly 20 victims who bought mobile homes from Goodman that led to the charges, which stemmed from 13 mobile homes sold in 2006 and seven sold in 2007. The incident reports indicate that Goodman is accused of selling mobile homes as either 1991 or 1994 Pioneer brands when they weren’t. The alleged victims include people and companies from Tifton and Tift County, Alapaha and Tallahassee, Fla.
Then in late February, the TCSO charged Goodman with theft by deception. He is alleged in that case to have taken $10,000 in a down payment from a man last year for a land/home package on property he did not own.
Tuesday, the Ashburn man reported to TCSO investigators that he purchased a 80’ x 32’ double-wide mobile home from Ray Goodman Home Center. According to the incident report, the man told authorities that he gave Goodman a $27,000 check for the mobile home and that his check has already cleared the bank but Goodman’s company refuses to deliver the man the home or do the work that was promised.
Goodman was released Feb. 21 after posting a $20,000 bond with special conditions that stipulated he be released every day from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. within eight hours of his mother’s death and that he be allowed to “participate in preparation of his mother’s funeral.” Goodman’s mother died Feb. 22.
According to a spokesman with the TCSO, Goodman remains incarcerated at the Tift County jail.
