Six face identity theft charges

Five accused are from Toronto area, one from B.C.

Six people were arrested Tuesday morning after police investigating a home invasion and shooting at a Halifax residence allegedly found evidence there of identity theft.

Five of the accused are from the Toronto area, and the other is from British Columbia.

Police allege all six were in possession of identity cards, documents or information in the names of other individuals.

Four of the accused are also charged with defrauding banks in Halifax, including the Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank, TD Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The offences were allegedly committed between Feb. 22 and Tuesday.

Police responded to a report of a home invasion at an address on London Street on Tuesday at about 1 a.m.

Suspects entered the residence, police said, and discharged a firearm before fleeing in a vehicle that was described as a silver or grey Dodge Ram pickup truck.

There were no reported injuries, police said.

Four men and two women were taken into custody because of what officers discovered in the house.

Renato Ferenc Feher, 19, of Brampton, Ont., faces a total of nine charges: one count of fraud over $5,000, four counts of fraud under $5,000 and two counts each of identity theft and unlawfully possessing identity cards in the names of someone else.

Szebasztian Berki, 21, of Toronto is charged with three counts each of identity theft and possessing ID cards in the names of other individuals.

Krisztian Markovics, 25, of Toronto is accused of one count of fraud under $5,000 and two counts each of identity theft and possessing permanent resident cards in the names of other people.

Laszlo Lakatos, 30, of Richmond Hill, Ont., is charged with two counts each of identity theft and possessing ID cards in the names of others.

The two women – Rita Szimonetta Szava, 25, of Toronto and Sintiia Olah, 23, of Surrey, B.C. – both face single counts of fraud under $5,000, identity theft and possessing ID cards or documents bearing another person’s name.

The accused are all being held at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

A Toronto lawyer phoned into Halifax provincial court Wednesday for two of the defendants, while the rest appeared by video from the jail, with the assistance of duty counsel Lonny Queripel.

Crown attorney Rob Fetterly opposed everyone’s release and asked that their cases be put over until Friday for a bail hearing.

The prosecutor informed Judge Chris Manning that Szava is already subject to a bail order out of Calgary.