West Shore RCMP say two people have a date in court following a New Year’s Eve incident that saw officers seize fraudulently obtained, high-value items.
On Dec. 31, 2023, Mounties responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at Elements Casino at 1708 Island Highway in View Royal.
When officers arrived, they located a man, 48, and a woman, 28, sitting inside a white Ford F150, according to RCMP in a release.
Officers also searched the truck and seized multiple tools, which they say were fraudulently obtained using stolen credit cards, as well as high-valued electronics, including VR goggles and doorbell cameras.
“Police also recovered a combination of several stolen chequebooks, stolen identification cards, and stolen personal financial statements from over two dozen victims,” said RCMP Cpl. Nancy Saggar in the release.
Cross-jurisdictional investigation
The pair allegedly provided officers with false identification and were subsequently arrested for identity fraud, obstructing a police officer and possession of stolen property.
The man was also arrested for possession of forged documents, and Saggar tells CHEK News he has a “lengthy history with police, particularly fraud.”
She says the investigation is now a cross-jurisdictional.
“Many of those pieces of stolen identification actually came out of Alberta. So we’re currently in contact with various police departments in Alberta, where these stolen items were reported,” said Saggar in an interview.
“Whether it be wallets or bank slips, etcetera, we were able to trace back where these items actually came from.”
RCMP say the man and woman remain in police custody and are set to appear before the courts on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
“We have already started contacting the victims in relation to this investigation, many of whom had previously reported their wallets as stolen,” added Saggar.
RCMP say people can learn more about protecting themselves from identity theft online here.
“It was definitely a very good catch. Good on the caller to call this in and say, ‘Hey, this is suspicious. There’s a whole bunch of unopened tools piled high in the back of a truck,'” added Saggar.
“And we’ve released a photo that shows exactly how we found those tools, and it’s pretty astonishing it wasn’t called in prior to that.”
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Ethan Morneau
