Cops hunt pardoned conman

NASSAU- Police are on the hunt for Shane Mackey, the serial fraudster who received a pardon earlier this year.

Fraud investigators believe that Mackey is responsible for a car buying scheme on Facebook Marketplace.

Mackey, whose nickname is Mastermind, has been running a car scam for at least two decades by placing ads for used cars in newspapers.

Once contacted by interested buyers, Mackey would tell them that the car had been sold, but he could purchase a similar one from the car auction.

However, once Mackey got their money, he never brought in the car.

He notoriously continued his operations from his prison cell by recruiting prison guards and others on the outside world to collect money while he called the shots from his cell.

His latest conviction was in 2019. Mackey, 40, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for convincing 11 prospective car buyers to pay him a collective $50,000 for vehicles he didn’t own.

Despite his extensive criminal history, Mackey was pardoned and freed from prison on March 5.