MetroCard Scammer To Serve 1 Year In Jail

Apparently crime does pay or at least until you get caught that is. 42 year old Corey Grant was sentenced to a year in prison for his role in a $800,000 MetroCard scam. He & his wife teamed with a 3rd accomplice after she found a Metrocard Vending Machine (MVM) that gave out free rides. Leonard Greene of the New York Post has more:

A Long Island man who pleaded guilty to an $800,000 MetroCard scam was sentenced today to a year in jail for selling free rides on the subway and the Long Island Railroad.

Carey Grant, 42, was busted two years ago along with his wife and a friend, after they discovered a glitch in a Penn Station MetroCard machine that allowed them to buy fare cards for free.

Prosecutors said Grant’s wife, Lisa Foster Jordan first discovered the gift machine in 2005, and then conspired with her husband and a friend, Christopher Clemente, to sell tickets to friends and family.

Soon, the trio were placing orders for thousands of free tickets which they sold at discounted prices, officials said.

The ruse was discovered during a routine audit after which authorities were able to link the free tickets to two individual bank cards.

Click here for the complete report.

Is anyone else disgusted that this scam artist is only serving a year in jail? You have to ask yourself, is that nearly enough punishment to match what he stole from the MTA & in the end taxpayers? Most scam artists thrive on pulling the wool over your eyes even if they make no money. I’d bet anything that once he gets out, he will end up finding another scam to run. If you do the math, the time served versus what is made benefits him. I also think the people who purchased rides from him should be punished.

On a separate note, I think it is pathetic that in this day & age, it took the MTA nearly 3 years to catch up to the scam. Who knows how many other people could have known about this loophole & cost the agency much needed revenue? Plus one has to wonder if this could possibly be going on with other machines albeit most likely on a lesser scale. I suggest that they find a way to audit their machines more frequently & look into safeguards to prevent this from ever happening again.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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[…] a time of budget pain and service cuts, Transit Blogger is “disgusted” that a New York court sentenced Mr. Grant on Thursday to only one year and figures that once […]

[…] last month, I wrote an entry about a trio of scam artists who ripped the MTA off to the tune of $800,000 by selling free rides on the subway and the Long Island Railroad. The trio found a glitch in a Penn […]

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