Owner of Scott’s Jewelry and Pawn, accomplice plead guilty in stolen goods scheme

From The Trussville Tribune staff reports

BIRMINGHAM –Federal prosecutors charged Steve Randall Scott, 59, of Shelby County and Puerto Rico, and Sarah Vickers, also known as Sarah Elizabeth Cahill and Sarah Vickers Morrow, 39, of Shelby County, with one count of conspiring to transport stolen goods across state lines.

Scott and Vickers have agreed to plead guilty and signed plea agreements. They must appear before a judge to formally enter guilty pleas.

In 2015, Scott, Vickers and others agreed to start taking in items from shoplifters. Vickers and other employees of Scott encouraged shoplifters to bring them new, in-box items from national retailers including Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens and Home Depot, according to a statement from prosecutors.

The stolen items included power tools, graphing calculators, Fitbit activity trackers, vacuum cleaners, designer purses and electric toothbrushes.

Vickers and other Scott employees accepted the stolen goods, paid the shoplifters a portion of their value, resold the items for a profit on Amazon and eBay, and mailed them to locations across the United States, according to the plea agreements.

On Oct. 14, 2016, the Secret Service Financial Crimes Task Force, working in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, raided 12 of the Scott locations and arrested 16 people including Scott and Vickers.

The task force recovered two tractor-trailers’ worth of stolen goods. The more than 5,000 items had a value of at least $500,000.

Scott and Vickers acknowledge in their plea agreements that they sold at least another $500,000 in stolen items via eBay and Amazon. The total loss to area retailers from their scheme is between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

According to Scott’s and Vickers’ plea agreements, Scott, personally and through his relatives and corporations, owned and operated multiple check-cashing, check advance, title loan, and traditional pawn businesses in the Birmingham metro area.

The businesses were operating under the names Cashmax, Check Exchange, Cash 101, Cash Plus and Scott’s Jewelry and Pawn. Scott employed Vickers to operate the Cashmax, Check Exchange, Cash 101 and Cash Plus locations.

“These defendants encouraged thieves to bring stolen retail merchandise to their pawn shops to fuel an illicit online business where they sold as much as $1.5 million in stolen goods,” U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town said. “Thanks to the outstanding work of the Secret Service, our partners at the Jefferson County District Attorneys’ Office and local law enforcement, we have been able to shut down a widespread fencing operation in our district,” he said.