TEXARKANA — A man who was part of a scheme using stolen credit-card numbers to make hundreds of thousands in phony gas purchases has been ordered to pay more than $150,000 in restitution.
Jay Patel appeared for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey alongside his Little Rock lawyer Brooke Steen on Wednesday. Patel was one of three men charged in the use of stolen Ryder Corp. credit-card numbers to make fraudulent gas purchases at Horizon Food Mart in Prescott from 2009 to 2011. Horizon has since closed its doors.
Patel was a manager at the gas station when Kenneth Luke, a former driver for Ryder, took the stolen credit cards to him with a plan to use the ill-gotten card numbers to pay for gas that was never pumped, court documents show. The proceeds of the sales were split between Luke and Patel.
When Patel left his job, he trained the store’s new manager, Sadiq Lakhani, to use the card numbers in the same manner. From that point, the profits were divvied between Luke and Lakhani.
Documents in Lakhani’s and Luke’s cases state an investigation was launched by the FBI and the Arkansas State Police after Ryder officials noticed a large number of purchases charged to the company originated with Horizon.
Investigators conducted video surveillance and tracked the credit-card numbers. They were able to determine the drivers to whom the numbers were assigned were actually in other states at the times of multiple purchases in Arkansas.
Lakhani was sentenced to six months in federal prison, six months home detention and ordered to pay $581,754.88 in restitution jointly with Luke in September 2014. Hickey ordered Patel to pay $159,168.45 in restitution jointly with Luke.
In addition to the combined restitution of $740,923.33, Luke was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
Whereas Luke is liable for the full amount lost by Ryder and a credit-card-processing company, Patel and Lakhani are liable only for the amounts stolen while they were actually working at Horizon. If Lakhani and Patel don’t pay anything, Luke will be held accountable for the full amount.
Patel was sentenced Wednesday morning by Hickey to time served, or 14 months, plus 10 days. The extra 10 days is meant to give authorities a chance to transfer Patel into Immigration Customs and Enforcement custody. Hickey said Patel is expected to be deported.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross told Hickey that Patel was holding a one-way ticket for travel out of the U.S. when he was arrested by U.S. Marshals in New Jersey on March 2014 but that his cooperation has been good since then.
“He just wants to apologize to the court and to his family,” Steen said on Patel’s behalf. “He has learned his lesson.”