JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida woman who pleaded guilty to using counterfeit money in several counties that was produced by a printer was sentenced to one year in federal prison, prosecutors said Friday.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Lyndsey Rhea Markland, 41, of Panama City was sentenced after she pleaded guilty to four counts of passing bogus Federal Reserve notes. She was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims she defrauded.
Markland pleaded guilty on June 8, WJAX-TV reported.
Prosecutors alleged that during 2022, Markland bought gift cards and merchandise using the counterfeit bills. They added that the businesses were located along several counties in Florida, including Brevard, Clay, Duval and Seminole.
In November 2022, authorities executed a search warrant at a Comfort Inn hotel in Palm Bay, located in Brevard County, where Markland and Neal Evan Pollman, 42, of Panama City, were staying.
Officers with the Palm Bay Police Department found $30,000 in counterfeit bills and a printer, along with other tools allegedly used by Pollman to make the bills, prosecutors said.
Pollman was charged with one count of manufacturing and nine counts of passing counterfeit Federal Reserve notes, according to WJAX.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Pollman was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on Sept. 25, 2023. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims.
Markland and Pollman had appeared in a federal court in Jacksonville on April 27, 2023, prosecutors said. They had been transferred from the Bay County Jail, where they were serving jail sentences for violating their state probation on charges related to passing counterfeit money.
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Those charges stemmed from allegations that Pollman was found with multiple personal identification items that were not his in a Panama City hotel in November 2021, WMBB-TV reported. Prosecutors said that Pollman used a fake Florida driver’s license to book a hotel room with Markland, according to the television station.
Markland was found with counterfeit bills in her possession, WMBB reported.
In the most recent case, Markland’s defense attorney, Patrick K. Korody, told the Miami Herald on Monday that his client “apologized to the court and her victims” and “is thankful for the fair treatment she received from” prosecutors and U.S. District Judge Brian J. Davis.