Former bank robber known as the ‘assistant coach bandit’ pleads guilty in $40,000 scam
A Huntington Beach man the FBI once dubbed the “assistant coach bandit” pleaded guilty Thursday to a loan modification scam in which he was accused of stealing more than $40,000 from six victims, prosecutors said.
James Allen Ramsdell, 51, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court to a court offer of six felony counts of grand theft, one felony count of grand theft from an elder and two counts of charging unlawful advance fees, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
He also has a sentencing enhancement for a previous conviction for bank robbery in 2009.
Ramsdell could face six months in county jail when he is sentenced June 1 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, prosecutors said.
Between March 1, 2014, and Nov. 1, 2015, Ramsdell offered to provide loan modification services to a woman.
He illegally collected an upfront fee of about $920 after the woman received a bank notice of default on her mortgage, prosecutors said. He then instructed the woman to write multiple checks to complete the loan modification, but he never performed any services, according to the district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said he defrauded the woman of more than $10,000, and she later submitted a fraud report to the D.A.’s office.
Prosecutors said Ramsdell conducted a similar scam against five other people, defrauding them of more than $30,000 between September 2014 and May 2015. He corresponded via mail, email and phone using the aliases Melissa Hurley and Jim Stevens, according to the D.A.’s office.
Ramsdell was arrested in April last year.
In 2009, he pleaded guilty to robbing a Washington Mutual Bank branch in San Diego County and four other banks throughout Orange County, including in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.
The FBI dubbed Ramsdell the “assistant coach bandit” because he was once a youth baseball and soccer coach in Orange County.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
