Fort Myers, Florida - U.S. District Judge John E. Steele today sentenced Patrick Robinson to 2 years in federal prison for possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, and a consecutive 2 years for aggravated identity theft. Robinson pleaded guilty on Sept. 25, 2013.
According to court documents, on Feb. 28, 2012, Robinson was stopped for speeding in a vehicle, in Lee County, Florida. A subsequent search of his vehicle recovered two laptop computers, a thumb drive, numerous Wal-Mart Money Cards, and a Green Dot debit card. Each card was wrapped in a piece of paper that had a name, routing number, account number, and tax refund amount handwritten on it. Approximately 232 separate identities were found on the thumb drive.
Robinson admitted that he had been committing tax refund fraud for approximately six months. He also admitted to using the stolen victim identifiers contained on the thumb drive to file fraudulent tax returns, using an online tax program. Robinson requested the tax return refund money from the fraudulent returns to be placed on the purchased Wal-Mart Money and Green Dot cards.
This case was investigated by United States Secret Service, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
