John Hogan

WZZM-TV

GRAND RAPIDS — A Hudsonville man released from federal prison three years ago for manipulating ATM machines to spit out cash is now accused of doing the same thing at a popular sports bar north of Grand Rapids.

Multiple visits to a game room ATM at the Score netted David Alan Pendergast $6,000 before suspicious patrons chased him from the Plainfield Township sports bar on Northland Drive NE, court records show.

The 52-year-old Hudsonville man appeared in Kent County Circuit Court this week for a status conference on seven felony charges that could put him in prison for at least 15 years. The offenses include larceny and identity theft.

On Thursday, Pendergast rejected a plea deal from the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office that would have dismissed four of the charges, opting instead to take his chances before a jury.

4 arrested in string of Detroit-area ATM thefts

“That offer is gone after today,’’ Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Manns told him.

The U.S. Government in 2009 charged Pendergast with wire fraud for altering electronic settings on ATMs to change the currency denomination setting from $20 to $1. Under the ruse, machines recorded dispensing a $20 bill as a $1 bill.

Pendergast got numerous prepaid debit cards using the identifications of other people to work the ATMs. He was able to siphon an estimated $40,000 over several months before the scam was discovered in October, 2008.

His downfall came after an irate bar owner called police about thefts from his privately-owned ATM inside JD Reardon’s bar on Monroe Avenue NW in Grand Rapids. Investigators learned the same thing happened at other bars in Grand Rapids and Newaygo and at a bowling alley in Hudsonville, court records show.

A federal judge in June, 2010 sentenced Pendergast to nearly two years in prison and ordered that he pay restitution. Pendergast was also put on supervised release for three years.

He was finishing that term when the new round of ATM thefts got underway in April, 2014.

The Score’s owner told Kent County sheriff’s deputies that patrons noticed the same person using the ATM machine numerous times over a two-week period.

One patron had experience selling ATMs and felt uneasy about what the man may be doing, court records show.

“After witnessing this happen several times, the patrons then confronted the individual, taking his picture,’’ Detective Megan Forman wrote in a search warrant affidavit. Patrons followed him out to the parking lot and got a license plate number.

That information helped detectives zero in on Pendergast. He remains free on bond pending a trial date later this winter.