Fraudster put away for stealing dead babiesï¿½ IDs

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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:33 pm

TV3 web site at http://tinyurl.com/2wan2z - has a photo of him

Quote:

Fraudster put away for stealing dead babiesï¿½ IDs

07-Mar 19:56

When Kevin Anthony Osborne was 19-years-old he dropped out of university.

But not without realising the student loan scheme was ripe to be ripped off.

Today, ten years later, he was sent to prison.

His crime was being part of a ring that stole the identities of dead children, so they could use their names to apply for, and then steal, student loans.

It was an elaborate scam, and it changed the way the student loan scheme worked.

Osborne fled to Australia, but today, in the Christchurch High Court, he faced the true cost of stealing both the money and the identities of dead children.

Kevin Anthony Osborne is 32-year-old computer whiz kid who stole the identities of 10 infantsï¿½ today in court he apologised.

ï¿½He is a low life he must have had no morals what so ever and go around cemeteries and look at gravestones,ï¿½ said Ian Barker.

Ian barker and his wife Margerate are victims of his scamï¿½ Osborne stole their son Brettï¿½s identity in the name of greed.

ï¿½Totally for personal gain with no regard what it would have on Brettï¿½s brothers and particularly his mother Marg and I have a long marriage and it really hurt us we lost three babies and Brett was one. Back in July 1997 Osborne,a univeristy drop out, and three others began a systematic operation aimed at defrauding the Ministry of Education of tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.

Osborne began to research the death of infants who shared a similar birth date to his own.

He then applied to District Courts for birth certificates - sometimes ordering large amounts claiming they were conducting genealogy research.

ï¿½A couple of occasions they wrote to the courts saying they were conducting a genealogy research and could they have the birth certificates for x amount of people and they were subsequently supplied with them,ï¿½ says Detective Sergeant Nigel Hughes, from Christchurch police.

Using the certificates they got IRD numbers and enrolled at various universities and polytechs around New Zealand, and once accepted, applied for student loans.

In total Osborne and his friends created 99 false identities and according to the records received in total $179,000 in loans from the ministry of education.

Only 10 of those 99 identities could be pinned on Osborne who profited by over $32,000.

ï¿½I am pretty sure they were going to the world soccer cup in France and I remember one of the early photos of Osborne was wearing a French soccer jersey,ï¿½ Hughes says.

For six months Osborne lived it up watching the soccer World Cup and tripping around Europe before returning home.

ï¿½It was while they were in London that we became aware of their identity and I am sure they knew we were on to them as well so they jointly decided Australia would be a good place to stop rather than coming back into New Zealand,ï¿½ explains Hughes.

Osborne finally returned home to New Zealand last November on an Australian passport, wearing a French soccer jersey; saying he knew he took a risk returning to New Zealand, however he did so because of business interests and a desire to visit his sick mother who has since died.

Today, ten years on, he faced the music and faced his victims - parents and siblings of those whose identities he stole.

ï¿½News that Brettï¿½s name had been stolen and abused had left us feeling violated and robbed of dignity the healing that had occurred in the passing of time had suddenly been shattered,ï¿½ Turner read to Osborne in a court statement.

Osborne then stood up and apologised to the families

ï¿½I would really like to express my remorse to the families of the children involved. What I did was abhorrent,ï¿½ he said.

The judge then sentenced him to 14 months behind bars, ending his 10 years on the run.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 589

Great another fraud Star behind bars Twisted Evil

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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:29 pm

Quote:

Osborne began to research the death of infants who shared a similar birth date to his own.

He then applied to District Courts for birth certificates - sometimes ordering large amounts claiming they were conducting genealogy research.

ï¿½A couple of occasions they wrote to the courts saying they were conducting a genealogy research and could they have the birth certificates for x amount of people and they were subsequently supplied with them,ï¿½ says Detective Sergeant Nigel Hughes, from Christchurch police.

It's almost straight out of The Day Of The Jackal.

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:22 am

What this guy did is very easy to do in the United States. I find it interesting that scammers prefer stealing the id's of people they scam instead of doing it an easier way. Before Ancestry.com came along a person had to go either to a court house, state vital records office or library to find this information. Now they can pay for a subscription to Ancestry and find it there. Some websites are putting the actual death certificates online. It is just a matter of time before they figure this out and go wholesaling on fraudulent ids.

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