The Walnut Creek Police Department arrested two individuals last week for identity theft of multiple individuals.
On May 9, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office filed charges on Alexander Stradwick, 30, and Hanna Tennyson, 30, both out of Walnut Creek. The complaint says that they both had intent to defraud, acquire, and retain possession of personal identifying information of 10 and more other people.
Investigators found the suspects with at least 10 or more victims identifications, thousands of pieces of mail and other fraudulent items. Police did not release information on total loss caused by these two individuals.
According to the felony complaint,
- PC 530.5(c)(2) – ID theft with prior
- PC 530.5(c)(3) – ID theft of multiple victims
According to the complaint, both Stradwick and Tennyson had already been previous convicted of a violation for identity theft.
For Stradwick, he had two prior offenses-eligible for probation which include second degree burglary (June 2013), check fraud (2013), possession for sale of a certain controlled substance (2013), second degree burglary (August 2014), identity theft (July 2015), false impersonation (Feb 2017), identity theft (Feb 2017).
No other information was provided.
California State Attorney General Information on Identity Theft
Identity theft is someone taking personal information like your name, Social Security number, or financial account number and using it for an unlawful purpose. Everyday people, business owners, well-known celebrities, and children are prey to it. In California, all forms of identity theft are crimes (Penal Code section 530.5 et. seq.).
Identity thieves do many things in a victim’s name. They open new credit accounts, take out auto loans, enjoy medical services (and make insurance claims), and even commit crimes and generate criminal records.
Identity Theft Impacts
Identity theft does not discriminate. There were 12.7 million U.S. adult victims in 2014, or nearly one victim every 2.5 seconds. That figure represents 4% of U.S. adults, including over a 1.5 million Californians. The number of victims declined slightly from 13.1 million in 2013.
Identity theft is also expensive. The total cost of identity theft to victims and businesses in 2014 was $16 million, down from $18 million in 2013 . The decrease continues to be the result of a greater share of fraud involving existing credit/debit card accounts, which is less costly than other forms of identity theft.
Note: The statistics cited are from the Javelin Strategy & Research “2015 Identity Fraud Report”, released in March 2015.
