Sun, Nov 08, 2009

Tucson Region

3 years given in ID theft; Honda patrons victims

By Brian J. Pedersen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.03.2009
A Tucson man was sentenced Wednesday to three years in federal prison for stealing the identities of customers of a local Honda dealership.
Michael De La Rosa, 24, pleaded guilty in April to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft.
De La Rosa and four others were indicted in September 2007 on 30 counts of fraud and ID theft stemming from De La Rosa's work at Arizona Honda, 4710 S. Palo Verde Road.
De La Rosa and two other salesmen — 42-year-old Anthony Rivera and 25-year-old Joshua Luna — used their access to customer credit applications to steal to steal information they used to order credit and bank cards issued in those customers' names, according to court documents.
Between March 2006 and March 2007, the trio — along with De La Rosa's girlfriend, 34-year-old Diana Teran, and another man, 37-year-old Carlos Banchs — used the fraudulent cards to buy two big-screen televisions and make more than $64,000 in purchases and cash-balance transfers, court documents show.
Rivera was sentenced to three years in federal prison in February. Luna and Teran were placed on five years of supervised probation in June, while Banchs was given two years of supervised probation in February.
Contact reporter Brian J. Pedersen at 573-4224 or bjp@azstarnet.com.