ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A Melrose Avenue Northwest used-car dealer who accepted food stamps as payment for two cars last year pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday.
Joseph Spangler, the 64-year-old owner of Sport Motors, accepted $9,000 worth of food stamps for two used cars last year from customers who turned out to be undercover federal agents.
In April, two U.S. Department of Agriculture agents carried a brown paper bag of food stamps to the lot and drove out in a 1981 Honda. They paid $3,090 in food stamps and $300 cash for the car, which had a sale price of $1,495.
In June, one of the agents returned and gave Spangler a shoe box filled with $6,000 in food stamps and $150 cash for a Buick Skylark worth $700, according to testimony Tuesday.
Food stamps on the black market usually are worth about half their face value, William Garrity testified. He is a supervisory special agent in the USDA's Inspector General's Office, which investigates food stamp fraud.
The undercover agent told Spangler that the agent's girlfriend's father stole the food stamps from a distribution center in Louisiana and that they were untraceable, Garrity said.
"Why'd you go through and do a second transaction?'' U.S. District Judge James Turk asked Garrity. "It seems to me like you were trying to get him in deeper trouble."
Garrity said agents had set up an alert for the food stamps after the first sale so that when they were cashed in - by an authorized store, as required by law - the USDA could trace them. The USDA hoped to find out if a store was involved in the scam.
When the stamps didn't appear, an agent returned to make another sale.
Spangler apparently never used the stamps. Tuesday, his attorneys turned over $7,920 worth of stamps to the prosecutor. He will make restitution for the other $1,120, as well as pay a $7,500 fine, as part of his plea agreement. He also agreed to forfeit the cars to the USDA.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Giorno said the rest of the stamps may have been stolen in a break-in at Sport Motors and have never been turned in to the government for reimbursement.
Giorno said he didn't know what Spangler planned to do with the stamps or why he held on to them so long. Spangler's attorneys refused to comment.
"You figure it would take him a long time to [use them all grocery shopping] with that many food stamps," Garrity said.
Spangler was targeted after the Roanoke County Department of Social Services turned his name in to USDA headquarters as accepting food stamps. The stamps are only supposed to be used by low-income people to buy food.
Spangler will be sentenced March 28 for unlawful use of food stamps.
He faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the first transaction. Because of the increased amount of food stamps involved, he faces up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine in the second sale.
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