Aircraft Maintenance Company Owner Charged With Theft

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DeLand, FL - The owner of an aircraft maintenance company in DeLand leaves Volusia County Jail on $17,500 bond after police link him to nearly $60,000 worth of theft from planes he was supposed to be servicing.

60-year-old Joseph W. Lippo - who is also the operator of JL Aircraft Services based near the DeLand Municipal Airport - was arrested yesterday (October 17th) on a charge of theft from a person over the age of 65 and another for grand theft.

The DeLand Police Department says it's been investigating Lippo for several months after receiving complaints from at least two customers who had stored their small planes on his property so that he could perform maintenance work on them.

"During the investigation, it was discovered that Lippo had been removing functional parts from planes, installing them in other planes and charging the owners for replacement parts in the original planes," stated a DeLand PD press release earlier today. "It was also uncovered that Lippo was possibly fraudulently charging victims for services and repairs to aircraft that were never completed."

Officers claim Lippo took at least $40,000 in equipment from a 1970 Gulfstream stored at his business which was owned by two men, both over the age of 65. Also taken from the plane was $11,000 worth of fuel and a life raft valued at $5,000.

According to the arrest report, one of the Gulfstream's owners was initially tipped off by the owner of an airplane supply store, saying the radio which was supposed to be inside his plane was actually at his store.

As officers dug further, it was discovered that the plane had other parts removed and replaced, all of its seats and two of the plane's pressurized windows.

When questioned by officers, Lippo claimed that one of the co-owners had given him permission to scrap the plane, then changed his story to say Homeland Security let him do it. He also told detectives that the co-owner who gave him permission "constantly changed his mind" when informed that the owner told police he never gave Lippo permission to do that.

A man who lives in Utah also contacted DeLand PD earlier this month saying that Lippo had apparently done some questionable work to his Cessna 210 plane while performing an annual inspection in January of this year, including replacing a battery which apparently didn't need replacing and removing two radios and a compass.

DeLand police are asking anyone who may have been a victim of Lippo's to call them at 386-626-7400 and report it.