Charlotte Resident Sentenced To Prison For Aggravated Identity Theft And Bank Fraud

Justin Pettway, 30, of Charlotte was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for aggravated identity theft and bank fraud.

Pettway, an employee at a South Carolina-based debt collection company, stole the personally identifiable information of Charlotte residents to obtain over $225,000 worth of new credit cards and a car loan for a new Corvette.

Pettway used his employer’s online database, which provides debt collection companies with computer and smartphone access to numerous public and proprietary databases, to obtain individuals’ extensive personally identifiable information, including addresses, social security numbers, and other personal information.

Court documents showed that once the defrauded banks notified Pettway that approved credit cards had been placed in the mail, Pettway drove to the victims’ residences, stole the issued credit cards from the victims’ mailboxes, and then used the credit cards until they were disabled by the banks.

Often, the victims did not learn of the unauthorized credit cards issued in their names until they received subsequent billing statements in the mail.

In addition to four years of prison, Pettway will serve five years under court supervision and will pay $226,517 in restitution to four major banks defrauded during the scheme.

More information about the crime can be found here.

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