Laguna Beach Man Stole $110,000 Tax Refund, Prosecutors Say

 A 34-year-old Laguna Beach man was arrested Tuesday and charged with stealing a $110,000 tax refund check.

Stephen Reginald McDow faces a felony count of theft of lost property, with a sentence- enhancing allegation of taking property worth more than $65,000.

McDow, who is being held on $110,000 bail, could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Lockhart said an unnamed Los Angeles woman filed in August of last year for a $110,012 tax refund. The victim then discovered that she had inadvertently provided a Citibank bank account number that had been closed in 2004. That account number was later reassigned to bank customer McDow.

"He started spending it the next day,'' Lockhart alleged.

In previous years, the woman had not had a refund coming to her, so the closed account had not been an issue, the prosecutor said.

When she did not receive her federal tax refund, the woman asked her accountant in December to investigate what happened, Lockhart said.

The woman's attorneys sent McDow a letter with instructions on how to return the money, but McDow said he had spent all but $40,000 of it on car and student loans and to save his home from foreclosure, Lockhart said.

McDow said he would return the $40,000 and asked to be put on a payment plan of $200 a month, but then ignored several attempts to retrieve the money, Lockhart alleged.