Maple Grove Pair Charged in $125K Identity Theft Scheme
A Maple Grove man and woman are each charged with identity theft and theft by swindle, according to court documents criminal recently filed.
The charges come after one of them allegedly deposited a $125,000 check into an account under someone else’s name.
A criminal complaint revealed Eric Pratt, 43, and Jade Birton, 31, both of Maple Grove, were arrested in Plymouth in late March with the help of Plymouth TopLine Financial Credit Union employees.
According to the criminal complaint:
Pratt opened a TopLine account under someone else’s information– identified as “J.B.”
Later, Pratt went to deposit the $124,318 treasury check under J.B.’s name and someone credited as “M.C.,” the complaint showed.
The Plymouth TopLine employees declined to allow the deposit without “M.C.” present, but Pratt ended up depositing the check at the Maple Grove TopLine location. The complaint said he also made two withdrawals from the account totaling $7,000.
On March 26, Pratt contacted the bank saying he was going to add “M.C.” to the account. At that point, an employee saw a credit report alert that “J.B.” was a victim of identity theft.
The employee set up the meeting and alerted the police. When Birton and Pratt arrived at the bank, Birton gave the bank employee an ID with “M.C.” on it, but a photo of her face.
Police showed up and put them under arrest. Both Pratt and Birton each posted a $5,000 bond, according to the Hennepin County jail records.
