Vista Man Admits to Elaborate Tax Scheme : Fraud: He pleads guilty to repeatedly filing false returns that government says netted him $220,000. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1-million fine.

A Vista man has pleaded guilty to an elaborate income tax evasion scheme in which he filed repeated fake returns and allegedly collected more than $220,000 in unearned refunds, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Robert E. Leonard, 47, who was arrested in March in Dana Point after using a rented mailbox there and elsewhere in Orange County to further the scheme, entered the plea Monday in Los Angeles. He admitted guilt to 19 counts of mail fraud, making false claims against the government, forging signatures on government checks and stealing government property, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark S. Hardiman, the prosecutor in the case.

“We’re quite happy with the (plea). He had a pretty sophisticated scheme,” Hardiman said.

Leonard faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1-million fine, IRS officials said. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 30 in Los Angeles.

Leonard’s attorney declined to comment on the case.

Hardiman said that Leonard filed more then 50 false federal income tax returns in 1989 and 1990 claiming refunds between $3,000 and $5,000 on each.

He said that Leonard prepared several false returns at a time by using minor variations on the same name, often only changing a middle initial. Then he would use a fake Social Security number to go with the name and file a bogus W-2 Wage and Tax Statement form, the prosecutor said.

Leonard then used rented mailboxes in Dana Point and San Jan Capistrano and listed the locations as the fake taxpayers’ addresses, Hardiman said. The operation grew more sophisticated when Leonard opened up bank accounts under the false names to deposit the refund checks, Hardiman added.

The evidence against Leonard included photographs from a time-lapse video camera that showed him picking up a refund check March 9 at a mailbox in Dana Point that had been rented under the name William Smith, IRS officials said.

Leonard has admitted to cashing nearly $20,000 in refund checks as a result of his fraudulent returns, but prosecutors contend that the figure actually exceeds $220,000.

“We will present our evidence to support (that total) during the sentencing hearing,” Hardiman said.