Laura A. Oglesby.
A Missouri woman has pleaded guilty to stealing her daughter’s identity to attend college and collect financial aid. Laura A. Oglesby, 48, ruined the younger woman’s credit, a police chief reportedly said. Sentencing is pending for social security fraud.
“By pleading guilty today, Oglesby admitted that she fraudulently applied for a Social Security card on Jan. 14, 2016, using the personal identity information of another person, identified in court documents as ‘L.A.H.,” the U..S. Department of Justice said. “Based upon her false representations, the Social Security Administration issued a Social Security card to Oglesby in another person’s name.”
She even used her new identity to get a Missouri driver’s license, and in 2017, enroll in Southwest Baptist University, authorities said.
“Using the stolen identity of L.A.H., Oglesby applied for and received financial aid to attend University A,” authorities said. “Oglesby obtained $9,400 in federal student loans, $5,920 in Pell Grants, $337 for books purchased at University A’s bookstore, and $1,863 in finance charges.”
Oglesby was living in Mountain View, Missouri, and worked at a library, Police Chief Jamie Perkins told The New York Times.
“She actually was employed here, which was kind of odd,” Perkins said. “And that’s how we figured out who she was.”
Her actions “basically just ruined” her daughter’s credit, he said.
And to hear him tell the tale, she was pretty successful at posing as a woman less than half her real age.
“Everybody believed it,” he said. “She even had boyfriends that believed that she was that age: 22 years old.”
Cops pulled her over during a traffic stop, where she eventually admitted to being Oglesby after they showed her proof, according to Perkins. She said she had been fleeing a domestic violence relationship for years, he said.
“We don’t know her life story outside of what she told us, but we know what happened here,” he said.
Oglesby faces up to five years in prison and must pay $17,521 to the university, and also restitution to her daughter.
Her attorney of record did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
[Image via Mountain View Police Department]
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