A Peachtree City man pled guilty March 13 to five counts of financial identity fraud for using a stolen credit card five times, including one purchase of a flat screen TV, in June 2011.
Garry W. Parker, 49, was sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years probation by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher C. Edwards. Parker must also pay a $2,000 fine and $1,496 in restitution.
Parker admitted to taking the card from the victim while he was working to move her belongings from a home to a storage unit while he was employed at A Better Way Ministries.
Parker had several other theft related convictions on his criminal record including a Fayette County case that dated back to 1995.
In a separate case, a College Park man admitted to selling cocaine to an undercover officer while also being in possession of marijuana in April 2010. Austin Autori Steele, 32, was sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years on probation, but if he can gain a technical school certificate and be employed for six months following, he will be allowed to terminate his probation early.
Steele’s attorney, Ash Joshi, said the crime stemmed from his client seeking money to buy drugs for himself, and Joshi asked the judge to sentence his client to a residential drug treatment program.
In another separate case, Edward Jarome Brown, 46, of Hood Avenue Fayetteville pled guilty to one count of financial identity fraud and one count of forgery in the first degree. Brown was sentenced to 15 years probation, a $2,000 fine and payment of $9,000 in restitution.
Brown admitted to submitting a fraudulent check drawn from the account of Neighborhood Charter School, Inc.
A Dacula woman also entered guilty pleas in a separate case to one count of forgery in the first degree, four counts of possession of a false identity document and three counts of forgery in the second degree. Akilah Janan Najah, 48, was sentenced to seven years probation, with a condition that she not set foot in the four-county Griffin Judicial Circuit until her probation is complete.
Najah admitted to possessing several fraudulent checks and fraudulent Georgia identification cards.
