44°
Patrick Giblin, 58, had already served several years behind bars -- and was months short of freedom -- when he made a break for it in July 2020, authorities said.
Giblin bolted while being transitioned to a halfway house in Newark from a federal prison in Lewisburg, PA, to serve out the rest of his sentence for duping multiple women in an online dating scam, they said.
It was the second time that he'd escaped federal custody just short of completing a sentence.
The previous time, Giblin immediately went back to scamming women after fleeing a halfway house, federal authorities said.
Giblin found his victims in the second case, as in the first, by posting ads and messages on telephone dating services throughout the country, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Claiming that he was moving to or visiting nearby, Giblin cultivated virtual relationships before claiming that he needed a loan for relocating or travel expenses, Sellinger said.
Giblin got some victims to wire him cash via Western Union and MoneyGram and others to make transfers onto a debit card, the U.S. attorney said.
Some of the money went to more airtime for cellphone calls to new victims, he said.
Overall, nearly a dozen women in various states were victimized.
That ended when U.S. Marshals found Giblin in Atlantic City in March 2021. He'd been on the lam for eight months at that point following his second escape.
Giblin, who's remained in a secure facility since then, took a deal from the government rather than risk the potential consequences of a trial. He pleaded guilty to escape and wire fraud in exchange for a 66-month prison sentence, all of which must be served because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler also sentenced Giblin to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $23,428 during a hearing in federal court in Camden on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
Sellinger credited members of the U.S. Marshals Service working in New Jersey and special agents of the FBI's Atlantic City Resident Agency for making the case leading to the plea and sentencing, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman of his Criminal Division in Camden.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Lower Merion-Narberth and receive free news updates.
