Police Chief Unhappy With 'Extremely Light' Sentence For Scammer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Ohio man is in jail here in Cook County for 60 days--accused of a magazine sales scam--and a suburban police chief is upset because he thinks the sentence should have been tougher.
Frederick Dawson, 42, of Youngstown, Ohio, was arrested in suburban Riverside and accused of pretending to sell magazines but merely pocketing the money.
And Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel says Dawson said he'd pulled the scam in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas and Utah.
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"He told is that the greater Chicago metro area was the easiest pickings for his scam that he had ever been able to perpetrate," Weitzel said.
Weitzel said Dawson pleaded guilty and got 60 days in jail and 18 months felony probation.
"An extremely light sentence when the likelihood of him returning here to comply with his 18-months felony probation, when he's not even a resident of the state of Illinois, is highly unlikely," Weitzel said.
Weitzel says most of Dawson's victims here were elderly.
