It may not come as a surprise to some. The owner of an Orange Mound tax preparation shop, who is accused of going on spending sprees with a stolen credit card, is now accused of keeping a man’s tax refund.
The Local I-Team has been reporting on Pia Sims for weeks now. Devonte Alexander says he has been looking for Pia Sims for more than a year. It was only after seeing Sims on the news did he even realize she was still in the area.
He says Sims still owes him money from his 2016 taxes.
“She gave me $250 and she told me I’ll get the rest of my money back around 2-3 weeks. So me and my mom, we waited,” said Alexander.
Alexander says a few weeks later when he called to ask about the money, Sims said there was a death in the family, then disappeared.
“I called her like a week or 2 later. The phone was disconnected,” said Alexander.
Sims now runs a shop on Park Avenue. Two weeks ago when we went there to ask her about a separate matter, she told the Local I-Team she owned the shop but didn’t actually prepare the taxes.
“I own it. I don’t do peoples taxes,” said Sims.
On the phone Wednesday, she switched her story, telling the Local I-Team she was the cleaning lady.
“I’m not the owner. I work there, like cleaning up,” said Sims.
She denied there was a problem with Alexander’s check, saying he got the refund he was due.
Jeni Diprizio asked, “You’re saying there was no problem with Devonte Alexanders tax returns?” Pia Sims replied, “not to my knowledge. I’ve never done a tax return in my life.”
Sims is also accused of using a stolen credit card to buy carpet for the tax store. And a different business man says she used a stolen credit card to buy $14,000 worth of appliances.
Sims says she is innocent and pointed the finger at someone else. “A lot of this stuff people are pinpointing on me, is not me, it’s my business partner.”
Sims is also facing two separate identity theft charges in cases unrelated to all of this. She is due in court next week for those next week.
