“Marriage” ID Thief Pleads Guilty in NY

Identity theft isn’t strictly about committing credit and debit card fraud in another person’s name. As the unusual case of New York victim Sara Benitez attests, it can also be about marriage, taxes and parking tickets. According to the New York Post, a bizarre string of identity-related crimes against Benitez date back to 1992, and culminated recently with a guilty plea from her identity thief.

That was the year that Aracelis Cherico, now 46, used Benitez’s Social Security number and other private information to get married. Eleven years later, in 2003, Cherico once again presented herself as Benitez so that she could fraudulently present herself as a “child care provider” to the Internal Revenue Service (she’d “sold or provided” Benitez’s information to a New York City tax preparer who also allowed 16 other clients to use her info for the same purpose, the Post reports).

Alas, the streak that spanned two centuries has ended with Cherico pleading guilty to felony identity theft. What happened? According to a separate article in the Post (kudos for the headline), Benitez first recognized something was amiss when the IRS told her of some problems with her tax return, which failed to include income from a temp agency job she had supposedly worked. In 2004, she went to get married to her boyfriend of 25 years but was held up at City Hall on account of already having been “Married.” Cherico reportedly used Benitez’s personal identifying information to get divorced, “blow off parking tickets” and “run up tabs at stores,” according to the Post.

And what price will Cherico have to pay for her crimes? According to the paper, she'll “be sentenced to 60 days in jail and has to pay $8,632 in back taxes and penalties. She also agreed ‘to assist in clearing the name of the victim, who has experienced difficulties in establishing her identity over the years,’” to quote Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

No doubt the crimes have meant big headaches for Benitez, so we hope that assistance is thorough. The victim says she’s unhappy with the sentence but looking forward to some “closure.”