{"id":21388,"date":"2017-10-25T08:42:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T13:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=21388"},"modified":"2017-10-25T08:42:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T13:42:43","slug":"former-texas-postal-employee-pleads-guilty-to-using-postal-service-fuel-cards-for-private-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/10\/25\/former-texas-postal-employee-pleads-guilty-to-using-postal-service-fuel-cards-for-private-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Texas postal employee pleads guilty to using postal service fuel cards for private vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"node-title\" style=\"box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0.25em 0px 1em; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; padding: 0px; text-align: center; color: #242424; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;\">Texas man pleads guilty to using postal service fuel cards for private vehicle<\/h1>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-pr-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\" style=\"box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid #6d6d6d; margin: 0px 0px 1em; color: #242424; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p><b>LAKE CHARLES, La.\u00a0<\/b>\u2013<b>\u00a0<\/b>Acting U.S.<b>\u00a0<\/b>Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that a former Lake Charles post office employee pleaded guilty last week to using U.S. Postal Service fuel cards for his personal vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Shawn Bell Jr., 21, of Port Arthur, Texas, pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Kay to one count of use of an unauthorized access device. The plea will become final when accepted by U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell. According to the guilty plea, Bell started using U.S. Postal Service fuel cards for his private vehicle starting on November 29, 2016. Bell resigned as a route driver for the Drew Station Post Office in Lake Charles on January 12, 2017, after law enforcement agents interviewed him about U.S. mail from his route found discarded in a dumpster. Even after his resignation, he kept the fuel cards and used them through April 10, 2017 for a total loss to the U.S. Postal Service of $2,021.24.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-19149 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Justice1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bell faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.<b>\u00a0The court set a January 18, 2018 sentencing date.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Postal Service-Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.\u00a0 Assistant U.S. Attorneys T. Forrest Phillips and Robert C. Abendroth are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas man pleads guilty to using postal service fuel cards for private vehicle LAKE CHARLES, La.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Acting U.S.\u00a0Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that a former Lake Charles post office employee pleaded guilty last week to using U.S. Postal Service fuel cards for his personal vehicle. Shawn Bell Jr., 21, of Port Arthur, Texas, pleaded guilty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21389,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388\/revisions\/21389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}