A 47-year-old Canadian man who lived in Gardiner and used someone else’s Social Security card to collect federal food stamp benefits was sentenced Tuesday to 3 1/2 years in federal prison.
Robert Jerome Bond, also known as Richard James McKay, had pleaded guilty in October to theft of public money and aggravated identity theft between January 2007 and October 2014, while he was living in Gardiner.
He was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor, and part of the sentence included an order to pay $5,923 in restitution.
According to a press release Tuesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. said at the sentencing hearing that Bond had “cynically betrayed the trust of the people of this country” and told the defendant that “when you return to Canada after your prison sentence, you will leave behind in this country countless victims of the crimes you have committed.”
According to the prosecutor’s version of events, Bond is a Canadian citizen who has been living illegally in the United States by using a series of identities since 1994.
Bond, who used an Ohio man’s identity — identified in court documents by the initials D.E.M. — had sought and received a total of $5,900 in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in 2007 through the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
“The defendant’s wrongful conduct was discovered when the actual D.E.M. applied for benefits in his home state and was denied because the defendant was already receiving funds in Maine under DEM’s name,” wrote the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Ruge.
The case was investigated by a Detective James Gioia of the Maine Attorney General’s Office and Loren Thresher, special agent with Homeland Security Investigations.
Investigators found that both Bond — then using the McKay name — and D.E.M. had been in the Sarasota County (Florida) Jail together in 1994 and that afterward Bond began using D.E.M.’s personal data.
It also found that Bond, using D.E.M.’s name, was listed on the Maine Sex Offender registry since November 2009.
The investigation also found that Bond was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and listed as a fugitive in that country.
Bond was represented by attorney Terence Harrigan.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams