ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday sentenced a St. Louis County, Missouri man who used counterfeit identification and a fake credit card to steal a rental car to three years in prison.
Kelvin N. Ford, 32, of Dellwood, pleaded guilty in September to aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. He admitted stealing an Audi Q3 SUV worth about $37,000 from Alamo Car Rental in Woodson Terrace, Missouri by using a stolen credit card number and fake identification in the name of a Connecticut resident. The driver’s license had the victim’s name, birth date and address but Ford’s picture. Ford was also using a credit card that had been encoded with the stolen credit card number.
Ford admitted that he did not plan to return the SUV to Alamo. At the end of the rental period, Alamo discovered the fraud and reported the Audi stolen. Woodson Terrace police found it in Bridgeton, with Ford sitting in the driver’s seat. Officers found multiple counterfeit debit cards using other people’s names, $736 in cash, gift cards and multiple fake IDs, including two fake employee badges for a healthcare company in the Audi.
Ford also opened an account at Scott Credit Union in someone else’s name, his plea agreement says.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Woodson Terrace Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.