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Woman Indicted On Charges Of Identity Theft

Lowell Resident Allegedly Used Database At Work For Scheme

POSTED: 3:43 pm EDT June 22, 2009
UPDATED: 4:09 pm EDT June 22, 2009

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A Lowell woman has been indicted on suspicion of stealing at least 34 identities that she allegedly accessed at her job in a Waltham-based company, the name of which has not yet been disclosed.

A Middlesex grand jury indicted Desire Gordon, 38, on 67 counts, which include larceny, identity fraud and credit card fraud.

“This was an extensive scheme in which the defendant used her access to the victims' personal identifying information as a means to steal their identities, obtain credit cards in their names without their knowledge, and then use those credit cards to make purchases for her own personal gain,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said.

Many of Gordon's alleged victims were doctors, Leone said.

"The defendant had access to a large database of health care professionals that contained their personal information," DA spokesperson Jessica Venezia said.

State police first got wind of the scheme when a Pennsylvania physician discovered that a credit card had been set up in her name and sent to a P.O. box in Lowell. She then learned that her name, birth date and Social Security number had been compromised.

Further investigation by the United States Postal Inspectors revealed that other cards had been sent to the P.O. box, which was traced to Gordon, who provided her driver's license to rent the box.

If convicted, Gordon could face up to 75 years in state prison for grand larceny (15 counts), 100 years for credit card fraud (20 counts), 55 years in a house of corrections for identity theft (22 counts), and 20 years in state prison for being a "common and notorious thief."

Gordon will be arraigned on July 1 in Woburn Superior Court.

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