West Shore RCMP has revealed that a massive identity theft operation, that was uncovered on Vancouver Island in October, has since been connected to dozens of unsolved fraud cases reported to the police in the past two years.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, police say that investigators with the West Shore RCMP Crime Reduction Unit have been diligently working through the evidence of the Langford identity theft ring and, as a result, have connected this operation to over 25 unsolved cases.
In October of this year, police executed a search warrant at a Langford residence and seized sophisticated equipment including credit card embossers, credit card PIN machines, heavy-duty printers and computers used to create fraudulent cards.
Police believed the equipment was being used to make a variety of fraudulent cards including, BC Identification cards, BC drivers licence cards, firearms licences, status cards, credit and gift cards as well as fraudulent bank drafts and cheques.
On Tuesday, West Shore RCMP noted that an investigation into the identity theft ring has led them to investigate further the dozens of other unsolved fraud cases – one case of these cases, in particular, was linked to fraudulent activity in November of 2019.
In this instance, personal identification was stolen from a parked vehicle and allegedly used by a suspect to gain access to the victim’s bank accounts.
Police say that over the course of two months, the suspect fraudulently accessed over $6000 and attempted to secure a loan in the victim’s name for thousands more.
West Shore RCMP say that they are seeking the public’s help in identifying a suspect, pictured below.
The man is described by police as a male in his 30s.
At the time of the fraud, he was wearing a black pullover Nike brand wind-breaker with a blue and white toque.
Anyone who can identify this suspect is being asked to contact the West Shore RCMP at 250-474-2264 or report anonymously online via Crime Stoppers or by calling 1-800-222-8477.
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