GREENE – Not long after Mary and Tony Wrench established Wrench’s Village Auto Service in 2004, they signed on with Aeden Waterford. The payroll services company, owned by William P. Stiles, had an office next door at 3 Foundry St. and the Wrenches remember someone walking over with a glass jar of candy to welcome them as a new client.

The logo-ed glass jar still sits on the auto shop’s customer service counter, and the Wrenches joke about whether they should try to sell it or use it to collect donations. The extra money would come in handy right now, as they recently learned they owe thousands of dollars to the IRS in federal employment taxes – taxes they believed had already been paid on their behalf by Aeden Waterford.

And they’re not alone: The company – which was in operation for close to eight years and had offices in Binghamton and Greene – had more than 100 clients, many of which are in the same boat.

“He has stolen money from a lot of people. It’s definitely having an impact on a lot of business owners,” reported Mary Wrench, who said she and her husband are concerned not only for themselves, but for the entire community.

In August, Aeden Waterford’s owner, William P. Stiles, closed the business, giving clients and staff less than a week’s notice. There was no hint of wrong-doing, however, until roughly three weeks ago.

That was when many of Aeden Waterford’s former clients received a letter, in which Stiles disclosed the fact that the company had “failed to remit all of the federal taxes that you have paid for the third quarter of this year.” By his own admission, money clients had paid for the quarter had been used to cover penalties and interest for delinquencies which had “occurred over the past few years.”

The reason for these delinquencies was explained in a second letter, enclosed with the first. It stated that around 2004, “some of the funds collected from clients of Aeden Waterford were used to meet expenses other than the tax obligations of each client,” leaving less money than needed to pay the taxes due. While the company continued to prepare and file payroll tax returns for their clients, he admitted that they were not always filed with full payment. The shortfall grew over time, as the money clients believed they were paying for the current quarter were used to cover penalties and interest.

“It’s just devastating,” said Linda Jones, owner of The Old Mill Restaurant in Greene.

Jones has already been in touch with the IRS investigator assigned to the case, and knows she’ll need to pay over a $1,000 – again. While the federal agency is waiving penalties, she’s been told if she doesn’t pay the amount due for her third quarter employment taxes, she will face interest charges.

For her small business, it will be a struggle to come up with those additional funds before the due date. But she knows that others are being hit even harder.

“He’s going to end up shutting down some businesses,” said Jones.

While the Wrenches didn’t receive a letter from Stiles, they did receive one a week or so later from the IRS. That was when they learned they owed not only for the third quarter, but for the second quarter as well. It came as a shock, they said, because they had already paid those taxes once – to Aeden Waterford.