Woman sentenced to three years in prison for swindling 14,000 donors by fabricating touching story about homeless people

A New Jersey resident has been sentenced to three years in prison for her involvement in a $400,000 GoFundMe scam. in which she and her then-boyfriend lied about helping a homeless man in Philadelphia.

Caitlin McClure, 32, was not present at the sentencing in Burlington County because, according to the Burlington County Attorney’s Office, she is already serving her one-year federal sentence in the case in a Connecticut prison.

Your state judgment will be in effect at the same time and a former employee of the New Jersey Department of Transportation will be permanently barred from serving as a state employee.

In 2017, McClure and her then-boyfriend Mark D’Amico pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after they fabricated a touching but false story that homeless veteran Johnny Bobbit Jr. had just spent my last $20 to help. McClure filled her tank with gas when she got stuck on I-95 in Philadelphia.

The couple launched a GoFundMe campaign called Pay It Forward. donors believed this was to take Bobbit off the streets and into the house.

The story quickly gained momentum when McClure and D’Amico were interviewed by local and national news outlets. In less than a month, they swindled over 14,000 donors out of $400,000.

The funds were transferred from GoFundMe to the couple’s personal accounts. Over the next three months, the two of them spent most of the money on personal expenses.

The couple told Bobbit about the false story they made up and the money he didn’t know about. In December 2017, D’Amico opened a bank account for Bobbit and they deposited $25,000 into it, officials said.

D’Amico, 43, pleaded guilty in December 2019. and was sentenced to five years in state prison, also the same as the previous federal sentence. Both he and McClure were ordered to fully refund GoFundMe.