BATON ROUGE — Chad Hughes, the Baton Rouge restaurateur behind Bengal Tap Room and the now-closed Var's Pizza , has been arrested and charged with felony theft and issuing a worthless check.

Baton Rouge Police arrested Hughes, 41, after an investigation into a worthless check he wrote for the $20,000 purchase of a trailer and dumpsters.

According to an affidavit, Hughes arranged to buy the items on Facebook Marketplace in June. When the seller tried to deposit the check that Hughes gave him as payment, the check was returned due to insufficient funds.

After multiple attempts to reach out to Hughes, the seller told police that Hughes had cut off all communication and made no effort to return the dumpsters and trailer.

On Aug. 4, the seller contacted BRPD about the sale and an investiga

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