Food Truck Owner Sentenced in $82,000 Food Stamp Fraud Scheme

A Rochester, New York, man was sentenced Friday in connection with an $82,000 food stamp fraud scheme he ran out of his food truck.

Paul Carroll and fellow businessman David Sobczyk were convicted of food stamp fraud after they both ran a food truck delivery business that accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits “on credit,” WHAM reported.

Starting in 1991, Carroll began a food truck business in which people would buy items on credit. By doing so, he took down food stamp recipients’ names, SNAP benefits card numbers with the PIN, and Social Security Numbers so he would authorize the purchases on the date the benefits were available on food stamp cards.

Sobczyk set up a similar scheme with his food truck delivery business in 2015, allowing SNAP customers to buy items on credit.

The Buffalo News reported that a business associate gave Sobczyk the vehicle to use for the delivery business, and Sobczyk paid him for the vehicle in monthly installments.

A judge sentenced Carroll to two years of probation, eight months of which will be home detention, and ordered him to pay back the government $82,066.

Sobczyk was convicted in August and was sentenced to two years of probation. He also had to pay back the government $82,066.

Some store owners convicted of food stamp fraud have received much stiffer penalties for their crimes. One New Jersey man convicted of food stamp fraud faced five years in prison for running a $3 million food stamp fraud operation in Connecticut.