Casino guest racks up huge list of fraud charges

Hamilton woman charged with theft of identities that sparked spending spree

On the eve of Black Friday and the annual season of — for many — shopping excess comes a stark warning to consumers: guard your privacy.

“People should take that extra precaution, like don’t leave your ID in your cars,” said Andrea Harris, a local assistant Crown attorney.

The warning comes as a Hamilton woman appeared Wednesday in Windsor’s Ontario Court of Justice on charges that she visited Caesars Windsor last year armed with bank cards, credit cards, driver’s licences, birth certificates and other personal documentation allegedly stolen from dozens of people.

Kelly Mccarthy, 31, is charged in a 10-page, 134-count indictment, most of it covering fraud and identity theft.

Mccarthy is alleged to have spent two days shopping, watching movies and ordering room service at Caesars Windsor on Aug. 28 and 29, 2018, and racking up bills of almost $4,500 on assumed names before one of her credit card purchases was rejected at a casino boutique and security staff and then the OPP were alerted.

Court-approved search warrants were executed to go through the woman’s hotel room and track her phone activity, and the Windsor

Police Service financial crimes unit uncovered what investigators believed to be part of a much bigger fraud and identity theft conspiracy, although Mccarthy faces no conspiracy charges.

Harris said Mccarthy is alleged to have had 19 different driver’s licences, 11 health cards, nine credit and other bank cards in her possession, as well as seven social insurance cards and other ID. For her brief appearance Wednesday before Ontario Court Justice Ronald Marion, Mccarthy had to be brought in from the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, where she is currently serving a jail sentence for an earlier identify theft conviction in Scarborough.

At her Windsor arrest last year, she identified herself to police as Samantha Rice, and she had the ID to prove it.

According to the prosecution, that was the name she used to book her hotel room, but she was Russell Bailey when she charged her accommodation costs to a credit card in that name.

Mccarthy is alleged to have racked up a $968 bill at the Caesars Essentials gift shop, $828 at Landau jewelry boutique and $184 in room service charges. Until a Landau purchase was declined, the total Caesars Windsor bill charged to her room was $4,492, according to the Crown’s case.

Mccarthy faces a raft of fraud, identity theft, forged document, impersonation and stolen credit card charges.

The items of identification found in her possession were allegedly stolen from about three dozen individuals.

“We don’t know how she got these things,” said Harris, who dealt with the matter in court this week.

Due to the substantial expense in investigating and prosecuting such large-scale fraud cases, the defence and Crown had been working on a deal in which Mccarthy would plead guilty to some of the charges and receive additional jail time, but that effort failed on Wednesday and the case is heading to trial in the new year.

Given the long list of charges, the pretrial hearing alone “will take a considerable amount of time,” said the judge.

Police believe Mccarthy was a member of a criminal organization and conspiring with at least 24 other people in a much larger criminal fraud operation.

For holiday shoppers and others, this case and other recent local identity and credit card theft convictions point to the growing need to be vigilant — ’tis the season for buyers to beware.

“There are people out there who want to take advantage of others, this is just one of those ways,” said Harris.

“Being a victim of identity theft has larger implications — you don’t want people to use your ID to commit crimes.”