COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – United States Attorney Beth Drake announced Friday a man from Myrtle Beach was sentenced for his involvement in a check fraud scheme.
The release says 55-year-old Howard Dillon was sentenced in federal court for conspiracy to manufacture and pass counterfeit securities.
United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell sentenced Dillon to 30 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Dillon was also ordered to pay over $31,000 in restitution.
Between August 2015 and January of 2016, Dillon and others were involved in a conspiracy to manufacture and pass fake checks. The defendants would make the checks using genuine bank account and routing numbers they obtained from checks stolen out of mailboxes in Horry and Georgetown Counties. They would then use fraudulent driver’s licenses bearing their photographs, but in other persons’ names which matched the names on the counterfeit checks to pass the checks at various businesses. Next, they would buy items at one store using the counterfeit checks, then they would go to another store in the same chain and exchange the merchandise for cash.
The case was investigated by agents of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and officers of the Horry County Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney A. Bradley Parham of the Florence office prosecuted the case, according to the press release.