Fairfield man gets 6 years for identity theft, stealing over $100K from victim

FAIRFIELD, Calif. - A Fairfield man was sentenced to over six years in prison Tuesday for convictions of nine counts of bank fraud stemming from his theft of a person's identity, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.   

Reginald Lamont Thomas, 47, used a person's information to take over their checking and savings accounts at Wells Fargo Bank between April 2018 and September 2019, the Department of Justice said. He did so while being on federal supervised release for previous conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.   

ALSO: Salinas police: Off-duty officer cleaning gun mistakenly shoots self, kills bystander

Court records show that he has two prior arrests for driving under the influence and a criminal history of possession of a loaded firearm and domestic violence.   

Thomas convinced bank representatives to change the address information on the victim's accounts to one associated with himself, then asked them to ship him a new ATM card. Thomas then used that card to buy a car and pay for a subscription to a dating service, racking up $113,000 in debit card charges. He also applied for and got a Costco Citibank credit card in the victim's name and charged upwards of $20,000 to it.   

ALSO: Family seeks answers in death of 16-year-old killed on San Jose freeway

In addition to the sentence of six years and three months in prison, Thomas has been ordered to pay restitution totaling $132,685.