Former Police Chief Jailed For Scamming 95-Year-Old Bucks County Man Out Of $29K: DA

NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — A former police chief from New Jersey has been sentenced to jail for scamming a 95-year-old Bucks County man out of almost $29,000. Robert Ryan, 71, has pleaded no contest to charges that he participated in a scam that involved making the Northampton Township man think he won the lottery.

Ryan, of Factoryville, Pa., told a Bucks County judge that he had also lost $30,000 to a Jamaica-based hoax and that his crimes were an attempt to recover his losses, according to information from the District Attorney's office.

Ryan was charged with four felony counts of theft by deception. He has been sentenced to serve 23 months in jail, followed by five years of probation. He was also ordered to repay the victim’s losses, totaling $28,900, in monthly increments of no less than $200 each.

Ryan worked 30 years as a police officer in New Jersey, retiring in 2000 as police chief in Garwood, N.J.

Ryan was arrested on Dec. 22, 2016, after Wells Fargo Bank employees summoned Northampton police to their branch in Richboro. Investigators found Ryan there with the victim, who was attempting to withdraw $3,800 from two accounts.

Bank employees blocked the transaction because more than $20,000 already had been withdrawn that month from the victim’s accounts, court records show.

The victim told police that he had been contacted earlier in the month by a man calling himself James Holliday, who told the victim that he had won $33 million from the lottery. The man told the victim that a courier would be coming by to pick up money needed to pay taxes before the prize could be claimed.

The victim told police that Ryan had stopped by several times to pick up five other checks he had written so that he could claim the alleged jackpot. Each of the checks had been made out to and endorsed by Ryan.

“He seems to be a very nice man. I never intended to hurt him,” Ryan said of the victim. “I was just trying to get my money back. It was a very foolish mistake for me to make, being a former law enforcement officer.”