ATLANTA — A former associate at Home Depot has been sentenced for taking more than 8,000 gift cards worth more than $4 million.
Felecia Ingram, 53, of Covington, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison, said Theodore S. Hertzberg, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, in a Thursday news release.
Ingram had been a gift card sales associate for The Home Depot since 2008. However, during the pandemic, from March 2020 through July 2021, when fewer employers were working onsite, she used her facility access credentials to steal the gift cards.
She used her network access credentials to activate the stolen gift cards, officials said. Ingram made false orders for them, making it appear the cards were sent to corporate events and used for legitimate business purposes. She later deleted the fake orders in the system in an effort to hide her thefts.
In less than a year and a half, Ingram had stolen about 8,325 cards with a value of $4,085,043.
Ingram made millions selling the stolen gift cards on the black market, using the money primarily for “an extravagant gambling lifestyle.”
The Home Depot uncovered the fraud after its gift card team found a discrepancy in the gift card ledger balances.
Ingram pleaded guilty and was convicted of access device fraud on May 1.
In addition to the three year, one month prison, she will have three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $3,946,776 in restitution to The Home Depot.
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