Three women charged in identity-theft case

Long Island Business News, Jun 25, 2004 by Rosmaria Mancini

One nursing-home employee and two other individuals were arrested on charges of stealing a credit card belonging to a Hempstead nursing- home patient and spending thousands of dollars on a three-day shopping spree at department stores such as Macy's and Victoria's Secret.

Jessica Mulkey, a receptionist at the Nassau Extended Care Nursing Home, her aunt, Colett Simpson-Stone, and a third individual, Princess Roberts, were charged with grand larceny in the third degree, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

According to the complaint, Mulkey, while working at the Nassau nursing home on Nov. 23, 2002, unlawfully removed a credit card from an envelope addressed to a 93-year-old female resident at the facility and, two days later, activated the stolen card with the assistance of co-defendants Roberts and Simpson-Stone. It is alleged that the three defendants then used the credit card on various occasions to illegally make purchases.

The complaint further alleges that merchandise was bought at stores located in the Green Acres Shopping Mall in Valley Stream, Long Island. The credit-card billing statements reflect charges of about $800 at Victoria's Secret, $1,600 at Macy's, $1,408 at J.C. Penney; $641 at 9 West, $617 at World Foot Locker, $547 at KB Toys and $500 at Verizon Wireless.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Alan Buonpastore, director of the Long Island regional office of Attorney General Spitzer's medicaid fraud control unit.