He once called 88 times in a two-hour period. He repeatedly drove past her house in his black BMW. He sent rambling emails and countless text messages.A 47-year-old Michigan woman who donned disguises and took her dead sister’s name to open bank accounts in Fort Wayne was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison.
Anna LaFaive, also known as Anna Gabbard, used the name “Phyllis Click” and fraudulent checks to open bank accounts at Fifth Third Bank branches in Fort Wayne and Toledo, as well as a Star Financial branch in Fort Wayne in the spring and summer of 2007, according to court documents. In July, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in Fort Wayne convicted LaFaive of two counts of bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. She was indicted in the summer of 2007, according to court documents.
LaFaive contacted the Social Security Administration to request a name change and obtain a Social Security Administration Number Verification document in the name of Phyllis Click. Using that document, she put on a disguise and went to a branch of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to obtain picture identification, again using Click’s name, according to court documents.
She then used an altered check drawn on the bank account of a mortgage service company in California at a JPMorgan Chase Bank branch. She deposited the check in the account – withdrawing most of the money later and using a debit card to charge purchases on the account.
An investigation revealed Click was deceased, and LaFaive was charged, according to court documents.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann sentenced LaFaive to 70 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay more than $64,000 in restitution, according to court documents.
