A North Carolina woman was sentenced to more than four years behind bars for carrying out an identity theft and bank fraud scheme that enabled her to spend money using the personal information of her victims.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of North Carolina, Jessica Bailey Sowell engaged in the scheme from March 2023 to February 2024.
Court records show that she created fraudulent identification documents using compromised personal identifying information (PII) that were obtained through stolen mail, the internet and other sources.
Sowell then used the fake documents at banks, hotels and retail stores. Investigators found that she had letters, bank cards and checks belonging to at least 26 victims of identity theft.
The 32-year-old was apprehended after a federal search warrant was executed at a hotel room where she was staying.
Investigators found a suitcase containing hundreds of mail with various names and addresses and another suitcase with store-tagged merchandise, two handwritten journals with the names and credit information of several individuals and 23 driver’s licenses from different states that show Sowell’s photograph and the PII of the identity theft victims.
They also seized from the rental vehicle that Sowell was using a credit card under the name of an ID theft victim, receipts for goods that were bought using the victim’s credit card, an identity card printer, multiple blank identity cards and holographic stickers.
Sowell, who is prohibited from possessing firearms, also kept a Taurus G3 9mm handgun in the hotel room.
On Monday, she was sentenced to 57 months of jail time followed by five years of supervised release for bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and unlawful possession of a firearm. She was also ordered to pay restitution to her victims in the amount of $47,190.25.
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