Cops: St. Charles restaurant owner ripped off customers, insurance

A St. Charles restaurant owner has been arrested on charges he made a fraudulent insurance claim and collected phony charges using customers' credit card numbers, police said Thursday.

Paul D. Gale, 43, of the 1300 block of Brook Street, St. Charles, is charged with three counts of misuse of a credit card, insurance fraud and filing a false police report. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of the most serious offense.

Deputy Police Chief David Kintz said Gale was charged after an investigation into a reported burglary May 4 at one of his businesses, Roadhouse Grill & Tavern, 3615 E. Main St., in which he claimed computers valued at $30,000 were stolen. Kintz said the restaurant, which formerly housed Bennigan's Grill and Tavern, had not yet opened.

"The information on the burglary just wasn't matching up," Kintz said. "That's where everything started to unravel and we found out about other parts of the operation."

Kintz said Gale, who also owns the Bar-B-Que Shack in St. Charles and the recently shuttered Billy's Roadhouse restaurant in Campton Hills, copied diners' credit card numbers and collected phony charges through a separate hospitality business.

Police said anyone who has used a credit card at any of Gale's restaurants should check their records and contact police at (630) 377-4435 if they believe the were charged illegally.

"We're expecting more people to come forward," Kintz said.

Gale opened his Campton Hills restaurant nearly two years ago, but it closed in recent months, police said. The Bar-B-Que Shack remains open.

At the time he proposed the Campton Hills business, Gale told trustees Billy's Roadhouse would be like all of his restaurants in that it would be "driven for the family" and diligent about carding drinkers.

Gale was in the county jail and scheduled for bond call Thursday afternoon. He appears to have no prior criminal history in Kane County, court records show.

As of Thursday, Kintz said the investigation had not expanded beyond St. Charles' jurisdiction.