SAN JOSE — A local event planner has been charged with seven counts of felony grand theft for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from families who hired him to plan quinceañeras, prosecutors said.

Juan Martin Gaspar, 51 — also known as Juan Martin Barcenas — is a prominent local event planner who helped families plan for their daughters’ 15th birthday parties, but he is accused of accepting large amounts of money from his clients and then not paying the vendors contracted for the events, according to a press release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

“A quinceañera is a very important event in a young woman’s life,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a press release. “The memories of that special day should be wonderful ones, not the memory of being ripped off

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