Altoona Man Guilty of Spending Bank’s Money

Chris Forshey
 
A Blair County jury has convicted an Altoona man of spending $175,000 that was mistakenly put into his bank account.
It took jurors just an hour to return the guilty verdicts on theft and receiving stolen property charges against Herbert Starbird on Tuesday. Police charged Starbird criminally last year after he failed to pay the money back to First Commonwealth Bank. The bank admitted it mistakenly deposited $280,000 in Starbird’s account in 2007. Starbird claimed the bank told him the deposit was not a mistake.
District Attorney Richard Consiglio says the whole thing could have been avoided if Starbird had just paid the money back. Defense Attorney Tom Dickey said the case should have been resolved in civil court. Sentencing is set for May 13th.