Three get prison, owe $7K for credit card fraud

GULFPORT -- Three Florida residents found in Gautier with equipment to make fake credit cards have been sentenced to prison, fined and ordered to repay the credit card companies they defrauded.

Tampa resident Yolanda M. Floyd, 35, and Riverview residents Trevor Dashon McFarlane, 41, and Rahl Abdullah, 40, must help make restitution of $7,093.02 to Discover, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, judgments entered in court records this week show.

U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden sentenced them on guilty pleas Dec. 10. They each faced up to 10 years in prison.

Ozerden gave McFarlane the stiffest penalties -- four years and two months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

He sentenced Abdullah to a prison term of two years and two months and gave Floyd a one-year prison term.

Ozerden fined Abdullah and Floyd $2,000 each.

Each will be on probation three years after release from prison.

Ozerden ordered McFarlane taken into custody. He has allowed Abdullah and Floyd to remain free pending notification of when and where to report to prison.

The three were arrested in Gautier on state charges of identity theft Nov. 20, 2013, after a traffic stop on Interstate 10. Court papers show they were found with material and equipment used to make counterfeit credit cards.

A federal grand jury indicted them Feb. 3.

They made and used unauthorized credit cards for a year, from December 2012 until the time of their arrests in Gautier, the indictment said.

All three pleaded guilty Aug. 25.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Three get prison, owe $7K for credit card fraud ."