Manteca man sentenced for ID theft and fraud | Crime

SACRAMENTO - A Manteca man found guilty of defrauding more than 50 individuals, banks and financial institutions by using victims' personal information to obtain credit cards and make phony driver's licenses was sentenced in Sacramento federal court.

Matthew Gene Ballard, 33, received a five-year, one-month term for convictions of mail fraud, bank fraud, credit card fraud and aggravated identify theft, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California. Ballard must also pay restitution and serve five years of supervised release after his prison term.

According to court records,  between Jan. 31, 2011, and June 21, 2011, Ballard used a victim's stolen identity information to open a UPS store mailbox in Modesto to have credit cards and bank account information sent to him. Ballard was accused of then using the fraudulently obtained information to make counterfeit driver's licenses with his photo but the victim's name.

In addition to the fraudulently obtained credit cards, Ballard was charged with making counterfeit credit cards.

Ballard was arrested in June, 2011, driving a BMW in Lathrop that he had rented using a false identity, said U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman Lauren Horwood. Investigators recovered sophisticated document-making items, a proprietary financial institution scanner and magnetic card programmer, high quality printers, and high quality paper (identification card) materials in Ballard's possession, Horwood said.