Imagine being a surfer or paddle-boarder looking forward to spending a bright sunny Southern California afternoon chasing some good waves. Imagine returning to your car only to find you’ve been locked out of your vehicle. As you try desperately to get into your car, a band of thieves are quickly draining your bank account.

The convicted bank robber and mastermind of this particular fraud scheme is now awaiting sentencing in Los Angeles federal court. This isn’t even his first stint at crime. Moundir Kamil, 56, of Orange County and a Moroccan national, had served 30 months in prison for various bank robberies around the Orange County area. He gained some notoriety because he kept demanding extra cash from tellers, which earned him the moniker, the Give Me More Bandit. And there’s more. In 2011 Kamil pleaded guilty to stealing a $1 million tax-refund check intended for real estate mogul and billionaire Donald Bren of the Irvine Company.

And yet…there’s even more:

“Every single one of defendant’s prior convictions, which include bank robbery, bank fraud, receipt of stolen property, and vehicle theft, relate to larceny and fraud,” federal prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers.

“He additionally has a pending case for grand theft and second-degree burglary, which was committed while [he] was on supervised release for the (current) case. Even being supervised and tracked with location monitoring during a pending federal criminal case could not deter him from committing almost the identical scheme with new co-conspirators.”

The document continues, “This demonstrated history of recidivism, along with the nature of the instant offense that spanned over multiple years and involved multiple victims establish a deep entrenchment in criminal activity and defendant’s willingness to put his interests above that of society’s time and time again.”

Prosecutors say Kamil caused a loss of $979,772.84 to several financial institutions during the scheme.

So, for this current criminal escapade, Kamil can’t declare to the sentencing judge, “Oh, please, Your Honor, I’m so SO sorry. I won’t ever do anything like this again. Pinky swear!” As the court documents explain, this dude is surely recidivism-bound if mercy is shown.

Back to this latest fraud enterprise: Kamil and his two accomplices would observe surfers in San Diego County, Malibu, Manhattan Beach and elsewhere in Southern California as the surfers parked their cars, stashing their car keys before heading for the waves.

Once an accomplice confirmed that a targeted surfer had paddled out into the water, they would give the all-clear for the other accomplice to break into the car. The accomplices would eventually rendezvous with Kamil, then give him the victim’s wallet and phone. Kamil would use facial recognition software to gain access to the phone’s apps.

All the while, as victims tried desperately to get into their cars, Kamil and his accomplices were quickly draining bank accounts, investment holdings, crypto wallets and any other money-holding programs. To make the situation even worse for the victims, when credit card companies called the victim’s phone to check on suspicion of fraudulent activity triggered by rapid and random purchases at stores like Louis Vuitton or the Apple Store, the thieves would answer and approve the charges since they had possession of the victim’s phone. Yet another cruel twist on identity theft.

As for stolen bank cards, those were used to purchase many high-end luxury goods along with expensive electronics. Kamil would quickly resell those goods for cash as his scheme ran its course (from April 2021 through December 2022, according to prosecutors).

Once the law caught up with him and he was finally arrested, Kamil was discovered to possess images of hundreds of stolen credit and debit cards belonging to a myriad of identity-theft victims. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is asking that Kamil be sentenced to six years and three months in prison and should be ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution and fees. Considering his past history of criminal behavior, we’re thinking maybe a decade should be added to his sentence at the very least.