Judge: CoiNuts owes customers $743,000

COEUR d'ALENE - A 1st District Court judge entered a judgment of $743,000 against the former Coeur d'Alene coin shop CoiNuts as part of a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Attorney General's office.

Judge Lansing Haynes found the business didn't respond to the Attorney General's lawsuit in April and so it must pay up for engaging in deceptive acts in the conduct of business, according to court documents filed Friday.

Stephanie N. Guyon, an attorney in the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, said Monday that a business must be represented by an attorney. No attorney ever came forward, she said.

CoiNuts' owner, 47-year-old Kevin E. Mitchell, declined to comment Monday.

A big chunk of the judgment is $648,000 in consumer restitution. That amount represents the money lost by 18 CoiNuts customers who were identified by the state.

The Attorney General's office is only going after CoiNuts and Mitchell for not delivering on coins and metals paid for in advance by customers of the shop. A number of other customers alleged that Mitchell and the shop bought metals with bad checks.

The judge said CoiNuts must pay a civil penalty of $90,000.

Another $5,000 goes to repay the Attorney General's office for attorneys' fees.

While Haynes' decision applies to CoiNuts, the business entity, a trial is still scheduled for the individual defendants: Mitchell and his stepdaughter, Sarah M. Mitchell.

Guyon said a three-day bench trial between the Attorney General's office and the Mitchells is scheduled to start April 21.

Guyon said the state isn't looking at any settlements with the Mitchells.

At trial, she said, the state will call customers as witness and will present document evidence showing that the Mitchells received money for coins and metals but didn't deliver the valuables.

"We just need to show there was a pattern" of deceptive business practices, Guyon said.