Fleeing from Fraud

When someone is in danger, a fight-or-flight response usually occurs. Either the person stays put and confronts the situation or they decide to flee from the mentally or physically threatening situation. The Department of Justice released a statement about an Alabama Man, who was pulled over for a traffic stop, but tossed a handgun while fleeing on foot from the scene. (That’s a pretty dramatic response to being pulled over, unless you have something to hide.) It turns out that some interesting evidence was found in his vehicle, and it was determined that he was a convicted felon. (That explains why he tossed the gun while getting the heck out of Dodge.)

The article states that his vehicle contained numerous prepaid debit cards and stolen personal identification information. After searching the man’s residence, more documents with personal information not belonging to him, 200 prepaid debit cards, a computer used to file tax returns and a magazine for his discarded weapon were discovered.

In his plea agreement, the man admitted to being involved in Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) crimes, which use stolen identities to submit fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), claiming refunds in the victims’ names. Over a two-year period, the fraudster received more than $80,000 in bogus tax refunds in his bank account. Later, he shifted to using prepaid debit cards to receive the refunds. (This would make it harder to track him down.) All in all, he attempted to bilk the IRS of $400,000 through more than 250 victims.

This criminal faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for access device fraud, another 10 years maximum sentence for felony possession of a firearm and another mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.

It’s highly unlikely that this guy will be able to run away from the law again, at least not for the near future. It is high time that he takes responsibility for his actions and pay for his crimes.

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