Accused Swindler Pleads Guilty to Grand Theft

An accused real estate swindler who authorities said maintained at least 28 identities pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of grand theft and one count of filing false documents to secure loans.

Thomas Townsend Stancil, 37, also known as Brian T. Hardy among other names, faces a maximum of five years in state prison, authorities said. He also faces five years in federal prison on a guilty plea to filing false passport documents.

In pleading guilty before Los Angeles Municipal Judge Xenophon F. Lang, Stancil won an agreement from the district attorney’s office that he can serve his state time in federal prison. Prosecutors also agreed to drop three other fraud counts.

One grand theft count, authorities said, concerned Stancil’s obtaining a $1.25-million loan under the name Brian Hardy from First Interstate Bank to purchase four small stripped-down airplanes that he subsequently leased to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The bank, Deputy Dist. Atty. Adalbert T. Botello said, lost about $200,000 as a result of the transaction.

A second grand theft count concerned his securing a $100,000 line of credit in 1984 from First Pacific Bank.

Stancil also pleaded guilty to filing false documents to obtain a second trust deed on a home in Brentwood. Stancil used the deed, authorities said, to obtain a $250,000 loan from the Bank of San Pedro.