individuals have been arrested in a raffle ticket scheme that raised more than $500 fraudulently, said Major Shane Tucker with the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department.

Timothy W. Penton, 33, of 1501 6th Avenue, Picayune, and his wife, Sherri Rena Penton, 28 of the same address, were arrested late Tuesday and charged with felony false pretense for selling raffle tickets for an alleged heart patient, Lindsay Buras, Tucker said. Tucker said while Buras is a real person, she is not a heart patient as the Pentons claimed.

“Between donations, merchandise, gifts and tickets, they were able to fraudulently raise over $500 in cash. We were able to prove our case because many of the victims were able to identify the suspects,” Tucker said.

Timothy Penton also represented himself as a sheriff’s department employee several times during the course of the fraud, Tucker said.

“If you’re pretending to be one of us, we take that personally,” Tucker said.

The Pentons are being held at the Pearl River County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing, which may be held as soon as Thursday morning.