Second man with SP ties pleads guilty to computer crimes, identity fraud

May 06, 2002
Santa Paula News

A Santa Paula resident will be sentenced later this month on various computer crime and identity fraud charges he was convicted of last week in a Ventura County courtroom.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesA Santa Paula resident will be sentenced later this month on various computer crime and identity fraud charges he was convicted of last week in a Ventura County courtroom.Timothy Wayne Murphy, 31, pleaded guilty on Thursday to 14 counts of felony identity fraud, four counts of felony forgery, two counts of falsification of a driver’s license and one count of possession of a blank counterfeit check.Murphy was arrested on July 17, 2001 after he was pulled over in Moorpark by Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies because Murphy was driving an unregistered vehicle; Murphy then gave a false name to the deputy who questioned him.When they searched Murphy’s vehicle, deputies discovered an ongoing identity fraud operation; a computer, large amounts of stolen mail, counterfeit checks and phony California driver’s licenses were seized.Superior Court Judge Kenneth Riley accepted Murphy’s plea of guilty on April 25 and scheduled sentencing on May 23.
In February, a former Santa Paula resident was sentenced to seven years in a state prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of felony identity fraud and numerous related charges.Trever Ziese, 30, then a resident of Ventura, had falsified accounts for almost 1,000 people, including checks printed using a background emblazoned with a swastika and Nazi slogan. He also pleaded guilty to two separate misdemeanor charges relating to being under the influence of methamphetamine.Ziese’s accomplice, 35-year-old Donna Mendoza of Oxnard, pleaded guilty to various fraud charges in October and was sentenced to jail and probation. The pair ran their operation out of a Camarillo motel room, producing fake identification cards and checks using a computer, scanner and a handheld credit card skimmer able to read magnetic strip codes.“Identify theft all over the country is on the rise and statistics bear that out; it’s a very fast growing crime,” said Dep. District Attorney Howard Wise of the Computer Crimes Unit, who prosecuted the cases. “The courts are dealing with it seriously and understand the problem.”



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