Court records James Lancaster show he stole at least 272 checks worth about $1.7 million from 59 different businesses, including hospitals, utility companies and car dealerships, as well as charities and a cancer research center
A former customer service manager at a U.S. Postal Service office in Indianapolis was sentenced this week to 40 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of checks worth about $1.7 million that businesses had mailed.
James Lancaster, 42, fought back tears after U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced him, saying the Indianapolis man’s actions warranted a significant sentence, including prison time, WTHR-TV reported.
“The defendant really has no excuse for his actions,” she told the court after announcing Lancaster’s sentence. Pratt added that Lancaster was in a position of trust at a busy post office but had shown “nothing other than greed and disregard of the victims.”
She also ordered Lancaster to pay more than $88,000 in restitution to his victims, saying that his actions had “seriously impacted” local businesses and also eroded trust in the U.S. Postal Service.
Prosecutors said Lancaster was the customer-service manager at the New Augusta post-office branch on Indianapolis’s northwest side when he began stealing mail containing checks in early 2021.
Court records show he stole at least 272 checks worth about $1.7 million from 59 different businesses, including hospitals, utility companies and car dealerships, as well as charities and a cancer research center.
Lancaster pleaded guilty to mail theft and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
A co-conspirator, Jordan McPhearson of Blue Island, Ill., was sentenced last year to 42 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Source : Market Watch
