He took lavish vacations and paid off debt — with money he stole from a homeless man

A bank teller stole nearly $200,000 from a homeless man, using the money to fund a series of lavish international vacations, put a downpayment on a house and pay off some personal debt, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Phelon Davis, a 29-year-old from District Heights, Maryland, likely faces up to 30 months in prison after he pled guilty to interstate transportation of stolen property, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.

Davis, who worked in 2014 as a bank teller in a Washington, D.C. bank, stole money from a longtime homeless customer, who earned money as a street vendor.

The homeless man had multiple accounts open with the bank, according to NPR, but the accounts had gone dormant by October 2014.

That same month, the homeless man entered the Wells Fargo bank in Georgetown and attempted to deposit thousands of dollars he had in a garbage bag into a bank account, according to The Washington Post.

But Davis, after telling him that his account had gone dormant, pointed the man to where he could obtain a social security card and other identification documents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

That’s when Davis realized just how much money the homeless man had in his accounts — tens of thousands of dollars — and opened a fraudulent account in the man’s name to transfer money to.

He used homeless man’s identification documents to open the account, forging his signature and obtaining an ATM card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

From Oct. 22, 2014 to Oct. 26, 2016, Davis would transfer money from the man’s accounts into the fraudulent one he created, withdrawing $185,440 on 144 different transactions.

With that money, he took vacations to Jamaica, Aruba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and made payments toward his personal debt.

He also put a down payment on his house.

The homeless man, however, didn’t have have access to an email or computer to check his balance, and did not receive bank statements.

It was not revealed how Davis was caught.

Davis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but is likely to face just 18 to 30 months under federal guidelines, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

This story was originally published September 30, 2017 at 5:48 AM with the headline "He took lavish vacations and paid off debt — with money he stole from a homeless man."