A Westbury woman has admitted to stealing a Suffolk County resident’s identity, which she then used to cash $71,000 in stolen checks from a Rockville Centre-based Jewish charity.
Marie Augustin pleaded guilty Tuesday at Nassau County court to grand larceny and identity theft.
Prosecutors said the 42-year-old opened several business bank accounts in the names of the vendors of the Jewish National Fund so that she could cash checks stolen from the nonprofit by using the stolen identity and a fake driver’s license in February.
Nassau County police began investigating when Augustin tried to make a withdrawal after depositing a check stolen from the Jewish National Fund, a nonprofit that develops land in Israel. She had also deposited two other stolen checks—on in the amount of $79,338.24 and the other for $30,000—into other business accounts she had created, authorities said.
Investigators found that Augustin had also made $5,100 worth of withdrawals from the identity theft victim’s account by falsely claiming that her debit card was missing, presenting the false driver license as identification and then having a new debit card issued, according to prosecutors.
There was no apparent relationship between the charity and the identity theft other than Augustin, who was arrested in April.
Judge David Sullivan is expected to sentence Augustin on Sept. 29 to two consecutive terms of nine months in jail, a civil judgment of $180,577.48 to the Jewish National Fund and $400 in reparations to the identity theft victim.
