Tallahassee, FL – 18 September 2018 – A former employee at Gulf Winds Credit Union has been arrested, accused of opening up thousands of dollars worth of loans under an elderly member’s name.
Pamela Sanford, 52, was taken into custody on Monday.
According to court documents, the victim, a 61 year old man, told staff at the Mahan Drive branch that someone was stealing from him in July 2017. He said that he had taken out a $1,000 loan at the end of June 2016 to help one of the credit union employees, later identified as Sanford.
Documents say the man explained that he took out loans to help Sanford, who he had known for several years while banking at the credit union. The victim said she approached him one day and told him she needed $1,000 or she would lose her house.
The victim agreed to take out the loan, documents say, if Sanford agreed to pay off the loan. He said Sanford agreed and said she would pay the money directly to the credit union.
According to bank records, Sanford paid just over $300 on the loan before opening up several more loans using the victim’s name and information.
In each instance, Sanford made payments on the newly opened loans before opening another loan to pay off the previous one. In total, documents say Sanford received $5,145.57 from the loans she took out in the victim’s name.
Documents say investigators tried to contact Sanford on Sept. 12 for an interview, but she didn’t show up and later declined to talk about the incident.
Based on the evidence, investigators found probable cause to charge Sanford with one count of grand theft over $5,000, four counts of use of an ID without consent person 60 or older, four counts of forgery, two counts of bank fraud, one count of grand theft $300 or more, and two counts of depositing an item with the intent to defraud.
Source: WXTL
Facebook Comments