DSP News Release: Tuesday, February 17, 2009-  Three Females From New York Charged in Credit Card Scheme

Location of Incident: Concord Mall, Concord Pike, Wilmington, Delaware, New Castle County

Date and Time of Occurrence: Monday, February 16, 2009, at approximately 9:30 p.m.

Suspect(s):  

• Linda Bekye , 37, of Genesse Street, Rochester, NY
• Nehanda Headley, 29, of Park Lane North, Franklin Square, NY
• Tracy M. Clark, 23, of Vaswani Ave., Jamaica, NY

Resume:  Last evening, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Troopers were dispatched to the Sears at the Concord Mall for a fraud in progress.

Upon arrival the initial responding officer was advised that three female suspects had fled in a minivan with New York registration and exited the mall traveling north on US 202. The trooper quickly exited the mall property and located the van.  A traffic stop ensued and the Trooper made contact with three suspects who were from New York.

The officer observed numerous electronic appliances in the van. The trooper took the three suspects into custody, and through his investigation, he successfully recovered the items in the van which were purchased using unlawfully obtained credit card account information.

The Trooper also recovered two large flat screen TVs and several other items for which the suspects could not provide proof of purchase for.  The Trooper also found documents with different individual’s names, dates of birth and social security numbers recorded on them.

In regards to the unlawfully obtained credit used at Sears, a credit report with the identity of the person used to make purchase was also found in the van- along with numerous receipts of purchases of items from around the Tri-State area.

As a result of the investigation it appeared that the suspects engaged in a practice of obtaining individual's personal information and tracking down stores or opening accounts to purchase items. Troopers are still investigating how the three suspects are obtaining the personal information of these individuals.

The suspects were as follows: Linda Bekye, Nehanda Headley and Tracy M. Clark. All suspects were charged with the following felony charges: Identity Theft, Theft, Possession of Forgery Device, Apparatus Capable to Adapting for Forgery, Unlawful Use of Credit Card, Receiving Stolen Property and Two counts of Conspiracy 2^nd. All three suspects were committed to the Baylor Woman’s Correctional Institute in default of $18,000.00 cash bail.

In all, the investigating officer recovered over $6,000.00 in stolen or illegally obtained property.