PORTSMOUTH, Va. - A Portsmouth man will serve over 10 years in prison for charges of conspiracy, fraud, identity theft and failure to appear.
According to court documents, Troy McFarland, 27, conspired with another man to repeatedly commit credit card fraud at the expense of more than a dozen identity theft victims and multiple financial institutions.
McFarland and the other man used credit and debit cards re-encoded with stolen financial information to purchase goods and services from local retailers. Some of the things purchased included luxury car rental, a hotel stay, dining expenses, motorcycle equipment, furniture, prepaid gift cards and a $14,310 Rolex watch.
McFarland was arrested on July 31, 2020, and was released into a third party's custody in Portsmouth with a location monitoring device. He removed the device on October 24, 2020, and was not located until March 4, 2021.
According to court documents, while McFarland’s whereabouts were unknown, he released multiple music videos about his lack of remorse for his crimes and boasted about having removed his location-monitoring device. At the time of his arrest, he was found in possession of more debit and credit cards associated with suspected fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the U.S. Marshals Service provided significant assistance in McFarland's case.
