Garland Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Using Stolen IDs to Rent Cars, Entire Floors of Hotels

A Garland man was sentenced Thursday to 5 years in prison for his role in an identity theft scheme that stole over 2,000 identities and used them to rent out entire floors of hotels.Alan Okpechi, 30, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.According to court documents, Okpechi and two others, Krisstopher Segura-Jatip and Morgan Nelson, stole over 2,000 identities including social security numbers and driver's license numbers. The group used these IDs to make false Texas driver's licenses with their photos on them, but with the stolen information. They then used forged or stolen credit cards to make purchases at stores like Walmart. In April 2015, police were called to a hotel in Plano about a man in the lobby who wouldn't leave. This was Okpechi, who said he didn't know who he was or where he was. After taking Okpechi to a mental health facility, police found a car in the hotel parking lot running with no one around. This car, which was found to be Okpechi's, contained a bag of credit cards and IDs. According to court documents, Okpechi would stay at hotels in the D-FW area while continuing the identity theft scheme, paid for by the stolen accounts.In August 2015, police pulled Segura-Jatip over after he ran a stop sign. Upon searching the car, police found 46 credit, debit and gift cards. The same month, Okpechi was arrested at a hotel with information on over 2,000 people and meth. Almost a year later, a victim of the fraud reported false charges from an Applebee's in Rowlett, as well as Google and Walmart. When police identified the IP address for the online charges, it belonged to Nelson. When police searched Nelson's house while Okpechi and Segura-Jatip were there in July 2016, they found more false IDs. Segura-Jatip was sentenced to just under 5 years in prison in July.   Continue reading...