File photo of a recently married same sex couple (Photo Credit:: FRED TANNEAU / AFP / Getty Images)
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A Charleston wedding planner has been accused of using a couple’s credit cards to pay $28,000 to vendors to whom he owed money.
Robert Lawson Smith was arrested earlier this week and charged with financial transaction card theft.
The 35-year-old Smith says he’s done nothing wrong and is being prosecuted for imprecise bookkeeping.
Adam and Wendy Shearer hired Lawson for their 2011 wedding at a Charleston plantation that cost $63,000. The couple says they were called the day before their honeymoon about possible fraud.
They discovered that up to $28,000 in charges on their credit cards for vendors that Smith had said were paid previously.
The couple was able to get many of the charges reversed.
Smith says that left him with the bill.
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