New Jersey woman jailed for one year over $400,000 GoFundMe homeless scam

Katelyn McClure is slated to be sentenced on state charges next month and could likely receive more prison time

File photo: Kate McClure, 29, charged with theft by deception in the $400,00 GoFundMe scam, with her lawyer Jim Gerrow Jr, in State Superior Court, Burlington County Courthouse in 2019 (The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

A New Jersey resident who confessed to her role in a GoFundMe scam worth $400,000 (£333,208) has been given a one-year prison sentence.

A federal court on Thursday asked Kateyln McClure to make restitution and serve a supervised release of three years. McClure is slated to be sentenced on state charges next month and could receive more prison time.

Katelyn McClure, 32, and her then boyfriend Mark D’Amico created a GoFundMe page in 2017 to allegedly help Johnny Bobbitt Jr, who posed as a homeless veteran.

The “Paying It Forward” fundraiser was created just in time for holidays to rehabilitate the homeless man, who had spent his last $20 to help a stranger, McClure, after she ran out of gasoline and was stranded on a highway in Philadelphia.

“He saw me pull over and knew something was wrong,” she had said on the fundraiser page at the time. “He told me to get back in the car and lock the doors.”

No part of this story was true, say state and federal prosecutors. D’Amico and McClure had met Bobbitt near a casino sometime earlier, in October 2017, and did want to help him. But they concocted the story to garner sympathy.

Johnny Bobbitt Jr (left), Mark D'Amico and his then girlfriend Katelyn McClure pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia (AP)

The fundraiser aimed to raise $10,000 to help get Bobbitt off the streets. The story created both local and national headlines at the time, and donations soon surpassed the initial goal of $10,000 to $400,000 after 14,000 donors came forward to help.

This soon raised suspicion among officials after Bobbitt said he had not received the money from the couple, prompting law enforcement officials to investigate if teh funds were embezzled.

According to the federal criminal complaint, McClure and D’Amico allegedly spent all of the money raised via GoFundMe by March 2018, with a majority of the funds spent on a recreational vehicle, a BMW and trips to casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

D’Amico was described as the group’s ringleader. He pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to prison for 27 months in April. He has been asked to make restitution and is scheduled to face sentencing on a separate charge in August.

Bobbitt was also sent to five years probation per state charges in 2019. He is slated to face sentencing next month on federal charges.