Evington man pleads guilty to role in credit card scam

One of three Evington men who pleaded guilty in July to participating in a $131,000 credit card scam was sentenced Monday.

Dereck Lorenzo Dunston, 40, will serve a 42-month sentence and pay restitution to banks for his part in the fraud that earned him and his two co-defendants the nickname “gas men.” U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon also sentenced Dunston to three years of supervised release.

According to an FBI news release, the men most frequently used the scam at the Sheetz store at 14480 Wards Road, hitting the gas station almost 1,200 times between April 2007 and January 2008.

Dunston and his co-defendants, Steve Allen Black, 31, and Ronald Edward Black, 26, entered guilty pleas to one count each of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, identity theft, credit card fraud,  and aggravated identity theft.

“This fraud was as wide-ranging and complex as the geography of the Western District itself,” said acting U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley in a news release. “These individuals operated throughout the district, making it difficult for law enforcement to track their fraudulent activities.”

The scam involved the use of card scanners to encode legitimate credit card numbers onto blank cards. The men then met people at the Touch of Class carwash in Lynchburg, went with them to gas stations, and used the cards to buy gas for them, according to testimony at the plea hearing.

The people getting the gas would pay the men half the value of the gas purchased.

Along with the Sheetz store on Wards Road, other places targeted include: 7-Eleven, Amoco Oil, Exxon Mobil, Kroger, Shell and Wilco Hess at locations in Altavista, Bedford, Forest, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Madison Heights, Roanoke and Salem.

Capital One, headquartered in Richmond, had 537 accounts compromised in 3,000 transactions totaling $131,942 in the scam. More than a dozen other financial institutions were used in the scam.

When Dunston was arrested, police found eight counterfeit cards on him and another 155 at his home in Evington.

The proceeds were split among the three men, according to a federal news release.

Moon did vary slightly from sentencing guidelines due to a head injury from a car crash in 1995 that left Dunston with hearing and speech problems.

“He is someone operating under a disability,” said his attorney, Joseph Sanzone. “He was trying to support himself and he did it in the wrong way.”

The prosecution agreed that Dunston was not the leader of the fraud ring but did profit from it.

Dunston remained in jail until his sentencing, due to a pending assault charge in Lynchburg.

Steve Black and Ronald Black are scheduled to be sentenced later this month.