WESTFIELD – A former bank employee has been ordered to pay restitution after submitting to a charge of larceny by scheme.
At the court ordered rate – $2,000 to be paid immediately followed by $50 monthly payments – the defendant should finish paying the $11,655.64 restitution ordered by Judge William O’Grady in 2035.
Ras M.Morgan, 26, of 304 Allen Park Drive, Springfield, was fired from his job the Southwick branch of Berkshire Bank on January 31, 2019, for “violating (company) policy when he changed a customer’s pin number without said customer being present” reported Southwick Police Officer Thomas Krutka in a court document submitted for Morgan’s May 7, 2019, arraignment in Westfield District Court on a charge of larceny of more than $1,200 by a single scheme.
Krutka explained that bank officials brought to his attention an internal investigation involving complaints by bank customers of fraudulent activity on their debit cards.
The internal investigation showed that all the customers had recently received service from Morgan. Krutka’s reports his subsequent investigation revealed that “Ras Morgan, after waiting on the eight customers involved, obtained the debit cards that were being replaced instead of destroying them and, either created or changed the pin numbers of said cards, then used said card(s) as his own to make several fraudulent purchases or cash withdrawals.”
Krutka detailed evidence to support his allegation and reports that the bank’s security and fraud investigation officer advised him that the bank had credited a total of $11,816.33 to the accounts of the eight customers who suffered from the fraudulent activity. Including charges made in Connecticut, the bank’s total loss was $12,990.42.
On Aug. 14, Morgan submitted to the facts presented in the case, acknowledging that the Commonwealth had sufficient evidence to secure a guilty verdict but not pleading guilty to the charge. As a result, the case was “continued without a finding” and O’Grady placed Morgan on probation until February 12, 2021, ordered him to pay $11,655.64 in restitution and assessed him a $50 victim/witness fee. O’Grady ordered that Morgan’s monthly administrative probation fee (often $50) be waived.
Typically, when a case is continued without a finding, if the defendant successfully completes his probation period the charge is dismissed leaving the defendant without a conviction on his record.
O’Grady ordered Morgan to pay $2,000 of the restitution “forthwith” followed by $50 monthly payments.
One hundred and ninety three $50 payments will add up to $9,650, almost the balance of the restitution remaining after Morgan pays the initial $2,000 of the 11.655.64 total restitution ordered.
One hundred and ninety three months is 16 years and one month so Morgan’s restitution to the bank should be complete in the fall of 2035.
