RICHMOND, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from March 2021.
A Portsmouth man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after committing fraud, then later removing a location-tracking device, the Department of Justice announced.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said Troy McFarland, 27, faced charges of conspiracy, fraud, identity theft and failure to appear.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, McFarland worked with another man to commit fraud against more than a dozen identity theft victims and multiple financial institutions.
The duo used credit and debit cards re-encoded with stolen financial information to purchase goods and services from local retailers.
Some of the things they got include a luxury car rental, a hotel stay, dining expenses, motorcycle equipment, furniture, prepaid gift cards and a $14,310 Rolex watch.
After McFarland was arrested on July 31, 2020, he was released to a third-party custodian in Portsmouth and had to agree to location monitoring.
In October 2020, he removed his location-monitoring device and ran away. While on the run, his whereabouts were unknown, but he released multiple music videos about his lack of remorse for his crimes and bragged about removing his device, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On March 4, he was found and arrested again. At the time of his arrest, he had more debit and credit cards associated with suspected fraud.
The U.S. Attorney's Office didn't share information about the man McFarland worked with.