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STUART — When a Florida Lottery seller final June spotted “micro-scratches” on $50 and $10 scratch-off tickets on the market at a Jensen Beach comfort store, the discovery led investigators to a cashier clerk arrested in a scheme to scouse borrow profitable tickets and pocket the money.
That’s consistent with a prison investigation introduced June 14, 2022 via particular brokers with the Florida Department of Lottery into Christine Nicole Fenton-Gilbert, 39, previously hired at the Rebel Store at 4287 Northwest Federal Highway, in Jensen Beach.
In court docket Monday, Fenton-Gilbert, of the 1500 block of Grand Club Boulevard, in Fort Pierce, used to be ordered to jail for 18 months on fees associated with changing greater than a dozen scratch-off Florida Lottery tickets, together with one price $20,000 that she admitted purchasing as a result of she knew it used to be a winner.
Specifically, Circuit Judge William Roby discovered Fenton-Gilbert in charge of 16 counts of forging lottery tickets and imposed a jail time period of 18 months on every depend, all to be served at the similar time.
Roby additionally ordered her to serve 13 years of probation for one depend of grand robbery and to pay $20,000 to the Florida Lottery and $1,196 to the Rebel Store in restitution.
Fenton-Gilbert had confronted a most time period of 95 years in jail sooner than she struck a handle the state Feb. 9 that required she plead no contest to 17 felonies. Prosecutors then dropped one depend of arranged fraud, information display.
She stated not anything as she and her lawyer confronted Roby, who ordered her to be fingerprinted in court docket sooner than she surrendered to deputies. She have been loose in lieu of $115,000 bond, consistent with court docket filings.
After court docket, Assistant State Attorney David Lustgarten known as Fenton-Gilbert’s sentence “a fair resolution” and stated the plea phrases famous how she cooperated with legislation enforcement and had little prison historical past.
“The plea deal involved a sentence which was more than the minimum,” Lustgarten stated. “In a nutshell, she’s going to prison on her first felonies and that doesn’t happen too often.”
Lottery fraud
Fenton-Gilbert used to be arrested July 13, 2022 after Florida Lottery officers documented her crimes the use of store surveillance video and statements she supplied after being faced with scratch-off tickets that confirmed “micro-scratch” marks indicating the tickets have been altered.
Investigators concluded she used to be changing scratch-off tickets to “expose play data underneath” and “was observed using her fingernail to alter multiple Florida Lottery tickets.”
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After changing the price ticket, Fenton-Gilbert, who used to be employed in August 2021, “would either push the tickets back into the dispenser or leave the tickets attached to the books where they were available for sale to the public,” Florida Lottery Special Agent Bradley A. Trombley wrote in a prison grievance.
Initially came upon June 14, 2022 via a lottery price ticket seller at the Rebel Store, a loss prevention supervisor quickly known Fenton-Gilbert as a suspect.
Fenton-Gilbert used to be noticed on surveillance video scratching the backside nook of lottery tickets “with what appeared to be her nail to uncover the PIN,” or micro-scratching, Trombley reported.
“Fenton would then manually scan the ticket to check for a winner and enter the PIN to validate the winnings.”
$20,000 scratch-off
On May 7, 2022, “one $20,000 winning scratch-off ticket was scanned but not validated” Trombley famous.
“After she confirmed the winning ticket of $20,000, she paid for the scratch-off ticket from cash in her back pocket,” arrest information mentioned.
Investigators reviewing store video from June 12 and 13, 2022, noticed Fenton-Gilbert “during her scheduled shift, pulling the ticket, scratching, and verifying the winnings.”
She used to be accused of pocketing $1,196 from tickets she didn’t purchase all over the two-day duration.
On June 16, 2022, Rebel Store officers suspended her, and he or she used to be later terminated “for theft.”
Four days later, when Trombley faced Fenton-Gilbert on the telephone about micro-scratching lottery tickets, she claimed “sometimes tickets got caught in the plastic dispenser that holds the lottery tickets for sale (and) would leave scratch marks on the tickets.”
“She also advised that she has ‘long nails’ and that could be another reason they were scratched,” Trombley reported.
She claimed that whilst on accountability, she purchased $50 scratch-off tickets about 10 occasions over 3 months.
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Asked about the $20,000 profitable price ticket on May 7, 2022, Fenton-Gilbert “advised she gave it to her father-in-law … to cash because she did not have identification.”
While to begin with claiming “she gave him ‘a chunk of it,’” Fenton-Gilbert later “admitted to keeping all $15,000 after taxes were taken out.”
After court docket Monday, her lawyer Michael Ohle stated in pleading no contest, Fenton-Gilbert “got the least permissible sentence under the color of the law to resolve our case.
“(Roby) was gracious enough to give her the minimal guidelines,” Ohle stated.
Lustgarten known as Fenton-Gilbert’s crimes “brazen” and “a violation of trust.”
“She was in effect, stealing from both her employer, as well as the state of Florida, on camera,” he stated. “The lead investigator for the Florida Lottery did a tremendous investigation.”
And Fenton-Gilbert, he stated, needed to know her movements inside of Rebel Store had been being video recorded.
“She worked at the store,” Lustgarten stated.
Melissa E. Holsman is the prison affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is author and co-host of Uncertain Terms, a real crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you’re a subscriber, thanks. If no longer,become a subscriber to get the newest native news on the Treasure Coast.
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