PROVIDENCE – A Brazilian national faces deportation for his role in a fraudulent Home Depot credit scheme, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced Tuesday.
Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 26, formerly of West Hartford, Conn., was sentenced to time served of eight months, ordered to pay full restitution and face deportation after pleading guilty to his scheme that collected nearly $300,000 in credit across stores in eight states, including Rhode Island.
Costa-Mota dressed to appear like a contractor and entered the stores empty-handed, prosecutors allege in court documents. He would then load a door or several doors worth hundreds of dollars each onto a lumber cart, take them to the service department and return them without a receipt, authorities said.
He was given a store credit that he later redeemed at other stores, prosecutors said.
If the return was denied, he would take the doors without paying and return them at another store, prosecutors said.
Home Depot stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey were also involved. The defendant was given about 370 fraudulent store credits between June 2021 and February 2022, prosecutors said.
(Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)