Homeless vet Johnny Bobbitt dodges jail time in GoFundMe scam

The homeless veteran who has admitted conspiring with a New Jersey couple in a $400,000 GoFundMe scam was sentenced to five years’ probation on Friday.

Burlington County Judge Christopher Garrenger ordered that Johnny Bobbitt, 36, be placed in an in-patient drug program and be required to testify against his alleged co-conspirators.

Bobbitt pleaded guilty last month to a charge of conspiracy to commit theft by deception. That charge was dropped Friday.

“This is an opportunity that you should take advantage of,” Garrenger told Bobbitt of the no-jail-time sentence. “If there is a violation of terms and conditions, you’re facing terms of imprisonment.”

Bobbitt, donning an orange jumpsuit, declined to comment in court on the matter when asked by the judge, telling him, “No, sir.”

Mark D’Amico and then-girlfriend Kate McClure, along with Bobbitt, first made headlines in 2017 when McClure claimed online that her car ran out of gas on the side of a road in Philadelphia and Bobbitt gave her his last $20 to fuel up.

McClure, 28, and D’Amico, 39, had said they were so touched by the gesture that they created a GoFundMe page to raise money for the homeless man.

More than 14,000 big-hearted donors opened their wallets, raising Bobbitt $400,000.

The story took a bizarre turn when Bobbitt sued the pair, saying that he only received a fraction of the money.

Investigators then looked into the case, prompting authorities to arrest all three of them in November on charges of theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said at the time when he announced the charges. “It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.”

Prosecutor Andrew McDonnell said Bobbitt has “a raging lifelong drug addiction,” and the drug court sentence is an “appropriate resolution.”

Bobbitt’s lawyer John Kessler said his client “has taken responsibility for this.”

McClure has pleaded guilty to one federal count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

There are no federal charges against D’Amico.