Man Gets 2 1/2 Years in Bank Card Fraud
A man who used a counterfeit bank card to steal nearly $239,000 from Security Pacific Bank accounts while on a prison work-release program was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 additional years behind bars and ordered to make full restitution.
Alan Speights Luster, 26, sentenced in Los Angeles by U.S. District Judge James Ideman, sparked a “public loss of confidence” in the bank’s automatic teller services during his 1988 Veterans Day weekend crime spree, a prosecutor said.
Luster and at least two other suspects had obtained a special card that bank administrators use to set up accounts for customers and managed to change access codes on 273 accounts, U.S. Atty. Gary Lincenberg said. By using counterfeit customer bank cards made of cardboard, Luster and his accomplices then withdrew up to $12,000 from each account, Lincenberg said.
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