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Friday, June 21, 2024 11:12:20 PM
After Tampa, Florida police found a ledger and debit cards in other people’s names in Damond Alford’s car, investigators were able to piece together how he had stolen $300,000 in an unemployment-benefit scam. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-a-florida-traffic-stop-unraveled-a-multistate-unemployment-benefit-scam-a8c09441
Officers knocked on the glass, and when Damon Alford opened the window, the smell of cannabis came billowing out, according to court filings detailing the traffic stop on Aug. 1, 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alford then failed a field sobriety test, and as officers placed him under arrest, they discovered a handgun in his belt and several grams of pot in his car, the filings said.
A subsequent search of Alford’s vehicle revealed something else — a letter from Bank of America containing a debit card for disability benefits for a man with a different name. Police officers also found four more debit cards in the car bearing other people’s names.
Alford, who had previous felony convictions for robbery and burglary, was placed under arrest on drug and weapons charges, because felons aren’t allowed to have guns.
A week later, police stopped Alford again, this time for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, court filings showed. A search of his vehicle that time revealed 120 grams of cannabis packaged for sale and a ledger containing personal identifying information for dozens of people, prosecutors said.
Alford was eventually sentenced to three years in prison for the gun and drug charges.
Tampa detectives turned the documents over to investigators with the Department of Labor, whose probe would uncover that Alford had been engaged in a multi-state unemployment-benefit scam in which he had stolen more than $300,000 using the identities of some 57 people.
On Thursday, a federal jury in Tampa found the 31-year-old Alford guilty of trafficking in unauthorized-access devices (the debit cards issued by Bank of America) and aggravated identity theft. Alford remains in a Florida prison and faces an additional 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.
Alford, who defended himself at trial, never denied possessing the cards and ledger in his hand-written court filings but argued that the evidence should be deemed inadmissible because it had been uncovered during searches conducted without a warrant during completely unrelated traffic stops, a fatuous argument which the judge found no merit in.
Officers knocked on the glass, and when Damon Alford opened the window, the smell of cannabis came billowing out, according to court filings detailing the traffic stop on Aug. 1, 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alford then failed a field sobriety test, and as officers placed him under arrest, they discovered a handgun in his belt and several grams of pot in his car, the filings said.
A subsequent search of Alford’s vehicle revealed something else — a letter from Bank of America containing a debit card for disability benefits for a man with a different name. Police officers also found four more debit cards in the car bearing other people’s names.
Alford, who had previous felony convictions for robbery and burglary, was placed under arrest on drug and weapons charges, because felons aren’t allowed to have guns.
A week later, police stopped Alford again, this time for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, court filings showed. A search of his vehicle that time revealed 120 grams of cannabis packaged for sale and a ledger containing personal identifying information for dozens of people, prosecutors said.
Alford was eventually sentenced to three years in prison for the gun and drug charges.
Tampa detectives turned the documents over to investigators with the Department of Labor, whose probe would uncover that Alford had been engaged in a multi-state unemployment-benefit scam in which he had stolen more than $300,000 using the identities of some 57 people.
On Thursday, a federal jury in Tampa found the 31-year-old Alford guilty of trafficking in unauthorized-access devices (the debit cards issued by Bank of America) and aggravated identity theft. Alford remains in a Florida prison and faces an additional 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.
Alford, who defended himself at trial, never denied possessing the cards and ledger in his hand-written court filings but argued that the evidence should be deemed inadmissible because it had been uncovered during searches conducted without a warrant during completely unrelated traffic stops, a fatuous argument which the judge found no merit in.
We've run out of other people's Social Security taxes needed to subsidize our low income tax rates.
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