A Florida man who stole the identities of 52 people in a scheme to activate and sell smartphones was sentenced Wednesday to 11 to 23 months jail, authorities in Bucks County announced.
According to information from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office, Jeffrey Francois, 29, of Miami, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of identity theft and 52 counts of conspiracy.
Both crimes are third-degree felonies, according to authorities.
Bensalem Township police charged Francois after discovering him and another suspect at the Comfort Inn on Lincoln Highway in June. The pair had a bag of new iPhone 6 smartphones and paperwork bearing identifying information of the victims, the District Attorney’s office said.
The personal information included names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and email addresses, according to authorities.
“Francois told police in an interview that he purchases other people’s identifying information from someone over the internet, and then uses the information to create and activate cell phone accounts for the new smartphones. He and Destine told police that they then sell the activated phones, typically for $100 to $200 per phone,” a statement from the District Attorney’s office said.
Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Byrne, who prosecuted the case, told the judge that all of the personal information possessed by Francois and Destine belonged to people working as attorneys or chiropractors.
According to the District Attorney’s office, Francois told the judge that he had come to Bucks County “to see if I could make a little money” from the scheme, but that police had intervened before he had a chance to sell any phones here.
Byrne credited Bensalem police detectives Michael Moretti and Brian Oliverio with doing “a phenomenal job investigating this case. Without the hard work of the Bensalem Township Police Department, this outcome would not have been possible.”
The second defendant, Daniel Phillipe Destine, 27, pleaded guilty to identical charges in November and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 9.
