TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–A former employee at Gulf Winds Credit Union has been arrested and charged with opening up several thousand dollars’ worth of loans under an elderly member's name.
Court documents show Pamela Sanford, 52, has been arrested in the case. The documents show the victim, 61, had told staff at a Gulf Winds CU branch in July of 2017 that he had taken out a $1,000 loan a year earlier to help Sanford, after knowing her for several years, according to WTXL. Sanford had allegedly told the victim she was about to lose her home.
The records show Sanford paid just over $300 on the loan before opening up several more loans using the victim's name and information, according to WTXL.
In each instance, Sanford made payments on the newly opened loans before opening another loan to pay off the previous one. In total, documents say Sanford received $5,145.57 from the loans she took out in the victim's name, the news outlet reported, citing the court documents.
Documents say investigators tried to contact Sanford in September for an interview, but she didn't show up and later declined to talk about the incident, WTXL said.
“Based on the evidence, investigators found probable cause to charge Sanford with one count of grand theft over $5,000, four counts of use of an ID without consent of a person 60 or older, four counts of forgery, two counts of bank fraud, one count of grand theft $300 or more, and two counts of depositing an item with the intent to defraud,” according to the report.