A Sandy Springs wedding planner is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from at least one bride-to-be.
LaShawn Hoes told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik she hired Angelique Tai-Beatty to plan her dream wedding at a riverfront venue this coming Spring. Hoes said she and her fiancé paid Tai-Beatty more than $4,000.
“She continued to promise things she couldn’t uphold,” Hoes said. “We became suspicious.”
Hoes said she tried in vain to reach Tai-Beatty by phone, text and e-mail, and could never reach the event planner.
“She never even made a deposit to our wedding venue,” said Hoes. “ When I spoke to them they knew nothing of me, my fiancé or our wedding day.”
Sandy Springs police have charged Tai-Beatty with theft.
“She’s a crook. She’s a liar,” said Hoes. “She deserves to be jail. Literally, deserves. She can rot in jail.”
Records show Johns Creek police are investigating cases involving two other customers, including Marquitta Mims, who told Petchenik she paid Tai-Beatty a $900 deposit to plan her wedding.
“They were supposed to do flowers, decorations, the whole kit and caboodle,” she told Petchenik. “I had a red flag when appointments kept getting pushed back for extraordinary reasons.”
Mims said she asked Tai-Beatty for a refund, but so far she hasn’t received one, so she wants police to arrest Tai-Beatty on another theft charge.
“When I finally did get her on the phone she went through this whole spiel of our account is negative and we’re trying to get a business loan and they’ve been rejecting us, but we’re finally approved for one,” said Mims.
Tai-Beatty was in Fulton County Superior Court Monday on the Sandy Springs case. She told Petchenik she wants to give her side of the story, but with her lawyer present, and would call him back sometime this week.
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