BOSTON
A man was charged this week in federal court with scamming Home Depot of more $35,000.
In 2005, the suspect used the same scam to steal $330,000 from Home Depot and was sent to prison, according to officials.
Robert Dooley, 56, of Salem, Mass., was charged Thursday in a criminal complaint with one count of wire fraud.
The complaint alleges that between January 2016 and February 2016, Dooley engaged in a scheme to defraud Home Depot by “returning” items he never purchased from the store to receive store credit. On each occasion, Dooley, entered Home Depot stores empty handed and gathered merchandise totaling $500 to $900. At the returns desk, Dooley falsely claimed that he previously purchased the items, but did not have a receipt.
When he provided this driver’s license number to the clerk, Dooley often varied the number so the “return” would not immediately be detected as fraudulent. Dooley was then issued a Home Depot card for the fraudulent return.
According to the complaint, Dooley perpetrated the scam over forty times at Home Depots stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine, racking up over $35,000 in fraudulent returns.
In 2007, officials said Dooley was convicted of federal wire fraud charges arising out of a nearly identical scheme in which he defrauded Home Depot in excess of $330,000 from July 2004 through October 2005. In that case, he was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Dooley is now facing up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, according to officials.
Dooley is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.