Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — Accused of bilking another man out of more than $15,000 over the sale of a mobile home, an Exeter man pleaded guilty to some of the charges against him last week.
Timothy Scott Gable, 52, entered a guilty plea on one misdemeanor count each of theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception before Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. on Thursday.
Prosecutors withdrew other charges against him and lowered the grade of the charges from felony to misdemeanor in pursuance of a plea deal.
Gable had been accused of receiving $15,200 from Duane Updyke for a mobile home, which Gable never delivered. Police say Updyke later learned that Gable never actually owned the mobile home, but that it was owned by another person in Oswego, N.Y.
The situation began in 2019 after Updyke sold a mobile home park he owned off Main Road in Ross Township. Part of the sales agreement required him Updyke to purchase and install a mobile home on a vacant lot, police said at the time.
Updyke was referred to Gable by a real estate agent. Updyke told state police that Gable agreed to purchase a 2009 Skyline mobile home, then deliver and set it up for $15,200.
Updyke transferred the money to Gable in July 2019, but nothing happened for several months.
Then, Gable contacted Updyke and said the mobile home was part of a bankruptcy case and said he needed another $7,000. Gable said he was calling from a lawyer’s office in Elmira, N.Y., and needed the extra money before the office closed for the day.
Updyke didn’t believe Gable, so he asked for the lawyer’s phone number. Updyke called the number, and he tells state police that Gable answered the phone using a Southern accent.
State police said that the serial number to the mobile home that Gable gave Updyke was not the promised 2009 Skyline, but a 1999 Fairmount that was in a community in Oswego. State police further confirmed from Skyline that the serial number did not match any of their mobile homes.
Gable was originally set to go to trial on April 19, but his guilty plea negates that. Instead, Sklarosky set his sentencing date for May 13.
Gable will remain free on $75,000 unsecured bail until his sentencing, court records show.
Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan