RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — A Portsmouth man has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, fraud, identity theft, and failure to appear.
In a news release Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said Troy McFarland, 27, worked with another man to commit credit card fraud at “the expense of more than a dozen identity theft victims and multiple financial institutions.”
Authorities said the two men used credit and debit cards that had been re-encoded with information that has been stolen. They used the cards at various retailers to buy goods and services, including a luxury car rental, a hotel stay, dining expenses, motorcycle equipment, furniture, prepaid gift cards, and a $14,310 Rolex watch.
McFarland was arrested July 31, 2020 and released to a “third-party custodian” in Portsmouth. The terms of his release required him to submit to location monitoring.
However, on Oct. 24, 2020, McFarland removed the tracking device and fled. He was located on March 4 and arrested again.
“While McFarland’s whereabouts were unknown, he released multiple music videos about his lack of remorse for his crimes and boasted about having removed his location-monitoring device. At the time of his arrest, he was found in possession of more debit and credit cards associated with suspected fraud,” the DOJ said.
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