ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE
USING COUNTERFEIT CHECKS, he bought two of the luxury cars for $370,000 in September. His free ride didn't last long. Tuesday, he was sentenced to 57 months.
A charismatic ex-convict who swindled a Rolls-Royce dealer out of two cars using counterfeit cashier's checks was sent back to prison Tuesday for nearly five years.
David K. Sadler also must make restitution of $58,000, most of that for the damage he did to one of the cars when he wrecked it as he drove home drunk from the dealership.
Sadler, 41, pleaded guilty in April to possession of counterfeit instruments in the scheme. Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge in Roanoke sentenced him to 57 months in federal prison.
Sadler counterfeited cashier's checks to buy the luxury cars in September from an Atlanta dealership for $370,000.
Too late, the salesman noticed that the four cashier's checks Sadler used had the same check number.
Driving home, Sadler wrecked a 1993 Corniche convertible in the median of Interstate 85 in North Carolina and was arrested on several charges, including driving under the influence. But he was released on bail that night.
An unsuspecting Appomattox man Sadler had befriended drove the other car home. FBI agents found the 1995 Silver Spur the next day.
Sadler began setting up his scheme while he was in a state prison in Staunton for grand larceny. He claimed to be worth $66million, with homes in Monaco and Palm Beach, Fla., and began calling a Rolls-Royce regional manager from behind bars.
Sadler altered a $10 cashier's check and copied it into 500 blank checks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said at the April hearing where Sadler pleaded guilty.
He used a check imprinting machine and began cashing the bogus checks. Sadler also was negotiating multimillion-dollar real estate deals that never closed.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB