A gas station manager has pleaded guilty to charges related to a scheme to fraudulently charge customers for fuel and pocketing the money for personal expenses.

South Amboy, New Jersey resident Umer Hassan Mir, 40, pleaded guilty to an access fraud charge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office describes the scheme:

From February 2018 through August 2021, while working at a Delta gas station in Metuchen, New Jersey, Mir caused numerous fraudulent fuel charges to be entered on fuel credit cards leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) and assigned to Amtrak vehicles. Mir would manually enter account information regarding fuel credit cards that he personally collected and saved during legitimate fuel transactions electronically into the point-of-sale terminal at the Delta gas station. Following false fuel transactions, Mir withdrew cash in the amount of the fraudulent transaction from the gas station’s cash register. According to statements in court, Mir used this cash for personal expenses and to pay another gas station employee for working extra hours on Mir’s behalf. 

Authorities say that Mir made approximately $78,000 in fraudulent fuel charges using account information belonging to more than 17 gas station customers.

Mir faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled for sentencing in December 2022.