West Virginian sentenced to two years for identity theft

Tammy Aleshire, a West Virginian was sentenced last Friday by U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. to a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.  She was also oreded to pay restitution to the victims of her identity theft scheme.

Aleshire had previously pled guilty in October 2009 to the aggravated identity theft charge.
Aleshire learned the name and social security number of another individual when applying for a credit card at K-mart in St. Albans, West Virginia. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Putnam County Sheriff's Department investigate Aleshire and learned she had used that person's identity to open credit card accounts.
Subsequently, Aleshire used the victims' name and social security number to obtain multiple credit card accounts which she used over 50 times to purchase merchandise totaling approximately $16,000.
Assistant United States Attorney Erik S. Goes handled the prosecution.This case was prosecuted as a part of the United States Attorney's identity theft initiative.