Attention criminals: When you have your hand in the cookie jar you might as well grab all of the cookies because when you get caught that’s exactly what will be the basis your sentence. Of course, I’m not talking cookie theft but rather credit card fraud. A pair of recent federal court rulings hold that criminals will be sentenced based on the limit of the cards they’ve stolen and not the actual amount of money ripped off. Because the length of federal sentences increase with the amount of money involved; these rulings will often lead to longer sentences but also give criminals little incentive to limit the amount of money they spend from boosted cards.
In the case of Andrea Renee Harris, Citibank, N.A., hired her as a customer service representative in November 2002. But within a few months Harris began accessing customer accounts without authorization. She compromised eight accounts, six of which were drained of $11,812.41 in fraudulent charges. The eight accounts had an aggregate credit limit of $89,770.00. The trial judge used the greater figure as the basis for an 18 month sentence.
In the other case, DeMarquis Williams worked as a tollbooth operator at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and admitted to skimming more than 500 credit card numbers from travelers. Williams unsuccessfully argued that his sentence should be based on the $157,138.22 that was ripped off and not the aggregate total of the credit limits for the cards which totaled $2,545,287.25. He was sentenced to 5 years in the pokey.
Here is a link to the 34 page opinion:
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/08/08-11121-CR0.wpd.pdf