Corbin man to pay back $43,000 for gift card theft

A Corbin man must repay $43,000 to a local company and will spend a year on home incarceration after admitting Tuesday to using the company credit card to purchase prepaid cards and keeping them for himself.

Roy Branham Jr.

Twenty-four-year-old Roy Branham, Jr., who was arrested last week following an investigation by the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of theft by unlawful taking of the value under $10,000 at a preliminary hearing in Laurel District Court.

As part of the plea agreement, Branham agreed to repay $10,000 of the restitution within 30 days and repay the balance within a year.

Deputies began the investigation after the owners of King’s Ransom Collectibles on South Stewart Road contacted them concerning the missing gift cards.

“(Branham) stated to them (business owners) that he had been using their business credit cards to purchase property (gift cards) for the business but had been keeping some of the prepaid gift cards for himself,” Detective Kevin Berry stated in the arrest citation, adding that Branham had admitted he had taken the cards several times over the last four months.

Branham was initially charged with theft by unlawful taking of the value of $10,000 or more but less than $1 million.