A manager at TD Bank in Darien became suspicious when a man who asked for a new debit card gave her a document for identification, and when she asked for the man’s Social Security number, he looked it up on his phone, said police, who were called in at that point.
Arrest photo from Darien P.D.
Arrest photo for Justin Wright, charged in Darien with various crimes related to identity theft.
Police eventually arrested the man and two accomplices, all from Long Island.
Here’s what happened, according to the police account, which includes accusations not proven in court:
Last Thursday, April 26, Justin Wright of Bay Shore on Long Island entered the TD Bank at 55 Post Road went to the bank to ask for the debit card. Just before 3:52 p.m., the bank manager stepped away from Wright to call police.
When a police officer confronted Wright, 27, with the bank manager’s account of what happened, he admitted that he had lied and was trying to use fraud to get access to a debit card.
He told police he was working with two friends in a white Mercedes Benz. They would give him fraudulent documents and pay him $300 to go to banks and get debit cards for actual bank accounts.
Arrest photo from Darien P.D.
Arrest photo of Henry Olubi, the car driver charged in Darien with various crimes related to identity theft.
While Wright was talking, officers gave out the description of the Mercedes to other police, and one spotted a white Mercedes leaving the Bertucci’s restaurant parking lot, directly across the street.
The car was stopped, and the driver, Henry Olubi, 24, of Brooklyn, NY, told police that he and his passenger were driving from New York to Binghamton University, in central upstate New York (and nowhere near Darien). They had stopped to eat, he said.
Olubi said the pair hadn’t eaten yet, although officers could see food containers in the car. Olubi and his passenger, Bright Mensah, 25, of Central Islip, NY, were both arrested. Police also arrested Wright at the bank.
In the car, police found a backpack containing bank receipts, checks and debit cards — all with different names of the three people under arrest. A stack of debit cards were in the glove box, and all had other names on them. Four fraudulent identification cards were also in the glove box, each with different names and information, but all with Wright’s picture on them.
Arrest photo from Darien P.D.
Bright Mensah, charged by Darien police with various crimes related to identity theft. He was the passenger in the car.
All three men were taken to Darien Police Headquarters, and another debit card with someone else’s name and information was found in Olubi’s sock.
Mensah, the passenger in the car, told police he was just a “middle man,” and that he would buy false IDs. Wright again said he only went into the banks with the fraudulent IDs.
Each of the three was charged with 16 counts of first-degree forgery, 14 counts of unlawful reproduction of a credit card, five counts of second-degree conspiracy to commit identity theft and five counts of criminal impersonation.
Wright and Olubi were held on a $50,000 bond; Mensah was held on a $25,000 bond. They spent the night in jail and the next morning, all three were taken to state Superior Court in Stamford.
Wright’s and Olubi’s bonds were not reduced, and Mensah’s was raised to $35,000. Each of the men is is scheduled to reappear May 16 in court, according to the Connecticut Judicial Branch website.