Yongsan soldier jailed, discharged for using stolen debit cards to withdraw cash

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Yongsan soldier jailed, discharged for using stolen debit cards to withdraw cash
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, January 16, 2008

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — A 19-year-old postal company supply clerk was given a bad-conduct discharge Monday, sentenced to five months in prison and demoted to E-1 for using stolen debit cards and identification numbers to withdraw nearly $1,600 from ATMs last July.

Pfc. Jerriett Hand of the 19th Adjutant General Postal Company pleaded guilty to 15 charges of larceny, one charge of conspiracy to commit larceny and one charge of wrongfully opening the mail. According to testimony and court documents, Hand and two other post office workers conspired to steal two debit cards and their identification numbers when they arrived in the mail at Camp Red Cloud and withdraw money from ATMs near Seoul.

Hand, who chose to be tried by a judge alone, tearfully told judge Lt. Col. John Head before sentencing that he was sorry for hurting other soldiers and for embarrassing his family.

“Sixteen hundred dollars wasn’t worth missing the birth of my first child,” said Hand, whose daughter was born three months ago as he awaited trial in South Korea. He asked the judge to let him remain in the U.S. Army.

“Being a soldier is all I know,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51648