Wis. court upholds inmate phone scam conviction

MADISON, Wis. — A state appeals court says a prison inmate was properly convicted setting up a phone scam from behind bars.

Prosecutors accused Matthew Steffes of stealing electricity from AT&T when he had people on the outside set up hundreds of phone lines under other’s names. According to the appeals ruling, Steffes wanted to get around prison limits on inmates’ collect calls to a single line. A jury convicted Steffes in 2009 of two felony fraud counts.

He argued on appeal that the evidence didn’t show AT&T suffered any economic loss.

The 1st District Court of Appeals though, ruled state law defines electricity as property and AT&T lost over $26,000 in electricity applied to just three of the fraudulent accounts.

Steffes’ attorney said he’ll likely appeal to the state Supreme Court.