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Career conman gets prison for ‘Prindle Swindle’

Posted at 6:04 PM, Apr 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-10 18:04:23-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man accused of scamming multiple people out of thousands of dollars will serve time behind bars.

A Kent County judge referred to Bob Prindle as a classic conman Wednesday before sending him to between 16 months and 15 years in prison.

In this case, he was accused of borrowing tens of thousands of dollars from a man he befriended and promised to pay back, but never did.

In other cases, Prindle posed as a businessman selling digital signs. After he would receive payment, he would disappear and never deliver the promised products.

“He continues to fraudulently get money from people, often good people, and to really never make any effort to pay when he gets caught,” Kent County Judge Paul Denenfeld said.

The family of the victim in Wednesday’s case said Prindle’s sentence wasn’t long enough.

“Like I said before, I don’t believe that’ll be justice at all,” said Ted Sarver, the victim’s brother. “Hopefully they keep him in there more like the 10 years. As soon as he’s out, he’ll rob people again, and actually since the time he was arrested, he’s robbed other people during that time.”

Before his sentencing hearing Wednesday morning, Prindle was arraigned on two new counts of false pretense.

In court Wednesday, Prindle apologized for his actions.

“Your honor, I’m deeply sorry for everything. I’d like the opportunity to start making things right,” he said.

His apology wasn’t well-received by the family.

“He’s never paid any restitution to anyone to date, so I don’t see it coming,” said Carl Sarver, the victim’s family member. “Like Ted said, I bet he will just rob someone else to get money if he has to.”