Former CU Employee Uses One-Year-Old’s ID to Steal Money
Elizabeth Oliver faces charges of theft, fraud, ID theft and tampering with records after using a friend’s child's ID in a scheme.
Pennsylvania police investigators said a former credit union employee allegedly used the identity of a couple’s one-year-old son to steal more than $14,000, and allegedly used the wife’s ID to get a fake auto loan, siphoning funds from the couple’s credit union accounts to make some of the monthly car payments.
Elizabeth Oliver, 36, who worked at the $57.1 million Lancaster Red Rose Credit Union in Lancaster, Penn., was charged with multiple counts of theft, fraud, ID theft and tampering with records on June 3, according to Lancaster police.
In December 2018, the husband and wife found a car loan and credit card on their accounts that they did not apply for, and also found a series of suspicious withdrawals from their accounts that dated back to January 2013. The credit union contacted the police and launched an internal investigation, which confirmed the fraudulent activity earlier this year.
Oliver, who was a lifelong friend of one of the victims, allegedly issued a fraudulent credit card in February 2013 under the name and identity of the victims’ then one-year-old son. Oliver is alleged to have taken a cash advance of $14,514 on the credit card, which had a $15,000 credit limit.
She was also accused of applying for a $26,169 car loan under the name and identity of the wife as the borrower in August 2016. The former credit union employee listed that a Ford Explorer had been purchased with the car loan, but posted on the paperwork the vehicle identification number of a Ford Fusion, which the victims had legally financed through Lancaster Red Rose.
The investigation revealed that Oliver made the monthly car payments by sometimes using funds from her own credit union account and at other times using the funds from the victims’ credit union account. Although Oliver resigned from Lancaster Red Rose in June 2018, she continued to make the car loan payments through November 2018 by dropping cash deposits in the night depository box.
By December 2018, the wife attempted to buy something using her credit union card, but the purchase was denied. After contacting the credit union, she found out that the address for all of her accounts had been changed to the address of Lancaster Red Rose. As a result, the wife did not receive printed bank statements, which is why the fraudulent activity went undetected from 2013 to 2018, according to police.