A year after an NBC Bay Area investigation prompted Santa Clara authorities to pursue a man accused racking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills using his brother’s identity, a judge sentenced Gary Wayne Bogle to 16 months in county jail.

South Bay man Ronnie Bogle gave an emotional courtroom statement at the sentencing hearing for his brother Gary Bogle, saying Gary “tortured” him for years by stealing his identity and using it for medical treatment at hospitals around the country. Authorities call this medical identity theft, and the Medical ID Fraud Alliance estimates this crime victimized 2.3 million Americans in 2014.

Santa Clara deputy district attorney Tom Flattery asked the judge to impose a stiff penalty, saying this type of identity theft is “much more serious” because it involved medical information and records, not just financial information.

Ronnie said he’s spent countless hours over the past five years trying to clear his name. He described a personal nightmare dealing with damaged credit and fighting with hospital billing departments over tens of thousands of dollars in charges for treatment he never received.

Click here to read the full article and watch the newscast video.

Click here for Ronnie’s original story, March 2015.

March 8, 2016 By Vicky Nguyen and David Paredes, NBC Bay Area