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Bloke Arrested For Impersonating Tom Brady To Sell Fake Engraved Super Bowl Rings

Bloke Arrested For Impersonating Tom Brady To Sell Fake Engraved Super Bowl Rings

The man allegedly posed as the legendary quarterback to purchase and sell the rings.

Max Sherry

Max Sherry

A man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating a New England Patriots player to try and sell Super Bowl rings with Tom Brady's name engraved on them.

Police have confirmed that the bloke in custody, now known to be New Jersey local Scott Spina, has struck up a plea bargain with authorities which has seen him admit his guilt to five felony charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Tom Brady.
PA

It's understood the former businessman, who once worked with famous music artist Fat Joe, started his elaborate scheme way back in 2017.

To break it down, Spina started off by buying a Super Bowl 51 ring off a former player who featured in the iconic game where the New England Patriots came from behind to beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28.

He then reportedly sold that ring to a California broker for around $60,000 and bought another three slightly smaller ones from the same company that manufactured the Super Bowl 51 rings, although these ones were designed specifically for the family members of the players.

Prosecutors allege that Spina then posed as Tom Brady in order to have the name "Brady" engraved on the rings, even falsely claiming they were gifts for the legendary quarterback's kids.

Basically, Spina wanted the rings to look like they directly belonged to Brady's family in the hope that their asking price would go through the roof.

Just remember, at no point in time did the real Tom Brady actually authorise the purchase and sale of these rings.

Alamy

Police documents then state that a potential suitor came forward and actually agreed to buy the rings for $81,500 - three times what Spina initially paid for them.

But the buyer was having second thoughts and backed out at the last minute when he suspected that something fishy was going on, which is when Spina landed himself on the police's radar.

The New Jersey man did eventually manage to flog the rings for upwards of $100,000 and one of them was reportedly resold by a memorabilia auctioneer for a whopping $337,219 a couple of years later.

"The rings were at no time authorized by Tom Brady," the federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said.

"Spina intended to obtain the three rings by fraud and to sell them at a substantial profit."

If found guilty, he faces up to 92 years behind bars.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/New England Patriots/Jostens

Topics: American Football, Tom Brady, NFL, Australia, Fraud, super bowl