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Prison Time For Federal Employee In Cancer Scam

Posted: 7:35 pm PDT May 10, 2008

A former federal worker has been sentenced to a year in prison for vacation fraud.

Robert Joseph Thom persuaded federal employees nationwide to donate nearly 1,000 hours of their own paid leave so he could take time off for fictitious cancer treatments.

The 46-year-old Oceanside man pleaded guilty to 10 counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced Friday in federal court in Sacramento.

Thom was an information technology specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Southern California when he signed up in 2006 for a national donor list.

He falsely claimed he had undergone "multiple urgent surgeries for the removal of malignant tumors." He forged doctors' letters to back up his claim.

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