A jury last week convicted a former Pacific resident, Vinod Ram, 48, of 16 counts of first-degree identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree identity theft for a “skimming” scheme that involved fuel credit cards belonging to commercial trucking companies.

The jury found that each count against Ram also constituted a major economic offense, an aggravating factor. Total losses to these companies and their credit card companies exceeded $582,000 over the 12 months the fraud was occurring.

Ram’s sentencing is at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10 before Judge Carol Schapira at the King County Courthouse.

Ram’s two co-defendants, Manny Chuks of Auburn and Damiun Prasad of Pacific, have each pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree identity theft in connection with the scheme.

Prosecutors are expected to recommend nine months of jail – work release – for the two co-defendants since neither has any prior felony convictions and they did not organize the scheme, or profit from it, and each testified at trial.

According to court documents, the scheme was active between Aug. 21, 2010 and Aug. 17, 2011.

According to court documents, Ram used illegally-cloned fuel account cards to steal diesel fuel, which he gave to his co-conspirators. He then called short-haul truckers and had his co-conspirators fill up the trucks at fueling stations in exchange for cash.

Detectives were able to connect more than 1,000 fraudulent credit card transactions to Ram. When detectives searched his home in 2012, they found a credit card scanning device and $35,000 in cash

Ram was convicted in 2009 of fraud related to credit cards stolen from his former employer, and committed the new offenses shortly after his release from prison. Ram faces a standard sentence range of five to seven years, but prosecutors expect to recommend an exceptional sentence of eight years and four months based on the aggravating factor.

Detective Sgt. Stacy Moate of the Washington State Patrol conducted an extensive 11-month investigation of this case. Deputy Prosecutors Peter Lewicki and Lindsey Grieve handled the case.