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Contact: Jim Cross
PHONE: 316-269-6481
FAX: 316-269-6420
July 23, 2008
LAWRENCE WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO WIRE FRAUD, ID THEFT
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Stacy Lyn Barnes-Catlett, 42, Lawrence, Kan., pleaded guilty this week to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In a plea entered Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., Barnes-Catlett admitted that she and others participated in a scheme from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30, 2005, to unlawfully make use of credit cards to purchase merchandise without the cardholders’ knowledge.
According to the plea, Barnes-Catlett and others concealed the use of the credit cards from the cardholders by placing calls to merchants to order merchandise to be given to the caller’s so-called “niece.” Barnes-Catlett would pick up the merchandise and deliver it to other conspirators, all without the knowledge of the cardholders.
In this manner, Barnes-Catlett and her co-conspirators obtained more than $7,000 worth of merchandise from Keller Strings, Hume Music and other businesses in Douglas County, Kan.
Barnes-Catlett is set for sentencing Oct. 20, 2008. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the wire fraud charge. On the identity theft charge, she faces a mandatory 2 years that must run consecutively to penalties on other counts.
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren commended the United States Postal Service and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker for their work on the case.
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