ORLANDO, Fla. – A former member service representative for Fairwinds CU on Friday was sentenced to five years in prison for an identity theft scheme by which she stole or tried to steal some $440,000 from accounts at the credit union and Royal Bank of Scotland, most of it from elderly or dead customers.
Nazreen Mohammed was ordered to pay $83,236 as restitution for her crimes while an employee at Lake County branches of Fairwinds CU and the Royal Bank of Canada. In November Mohammed pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors say that from April 17, 2009, to July 18 of that year, Mohammed used her position with the credit union to access member accounts – including those of elderly and deceased members – for her personal gain. She created loans and made withdrawals, obtaining $127,431 from the credit union.
In an attempt to disguise the location of the money, she then would transfer the proceeds from these transactions into the accounts of other members before eventually withdrawing them, authorities said in a press release. Mohammed also posed as various elderly and deceased members when checking on the transfers of funds with the credit union’s telephone call center.
