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Check scheme brings jail time

Man, wife stole $300K in fraud

PITTSBURGH — A man who cashed $300,000 worth of counterfeit checks using personal information stolen from hundreds of Wal-Mart customers was sentenced to prison Thursday.

Robert MacVittie, 35, of Cranberry Township and his wife, Jennifer, 32, who also was involved in the crime, were called “the Bonnie and Clyde of counterfeit checks” by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Melucci.

The pair lined up behind customers cashing payroll checks at “dozens and dozens” of Wal-Mart stores in 20 states and recorded them giving their Social Security numbers, Melucci said at the hearing where MacVittie received a 34-month sentence.

The couple would then use the victims’ identities to create counterfeit checks, which they cashed at other Wal-Marts.

The MacVitties pleaded guilty in September to charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft in a scheme known as “shoulder surfing.”

More than 400 people had their identities used on the successfully cashed counterfeit checks, Melucci said.

In all, the MacVitties stole or attempted to steal the identities of more than 900 people, Melucci said. They failed to cash more than $600,000 in other counterfeit checks.

The fraud started in October 2013, and the couple was finally arrested at a Nevada casino in November 2014, Melucci said.

MacVittie apologized for the fraud, which he told U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti was fueled by his gambling addiction and to keep one step ahead of people to whom he owed debts.

MacVittie didn’t describe the debts, and his public defender, Linda Cohn, declined comment as did Jennifer MacVittie, who witnessed the sentencing. She’ll be sentenced March 8.

“I was under a lot of pressure for gambling debts I owed,” MacVittie said. “I devised this scheme, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Melucci said the massive size of the scheme and MacVittie’s criminal record, which he called “replete with all types of forgery and fraud,” made prison time appropriate.

MacVittie’s criminal history includes the theft of a personal mobility scooter when the couple was at Walt Disney World in Florida in November 2012. Court records show he served a day in jail after pleading no contest to a count of third-degree grand theft of a motor vehicle in April 2013.

MacVittie, who has weight-related health issues, uses a scooter, though he was able to walk into court Thursday. During the Wal-Mart schemes, MacVittie was usually on a scooter while his wife stood over the shoulders of the check-cashing victims, Melucci said.

MacVittie also was ordered to repay Wal-Mart for the check losses. Half of his prison salary for menial work will go toward that debt, as well as 10 percent of any wages he earns after his release from prison.

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