Though Felix Montes-Rodriguez admitted to using somebody else’s Social Security number on the car loan application he submitted to Hajek Chevrolet, a Colorado court found him innocent of criminal impersonation.
In an Oct. 25 ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of Montes-Rodriguez because some of the information on the credit app was correct.
“He gave his correct address, birth date and place of employment,” wrote Justice Michael Bender. “Most importantly, he gave his correct name. In the face of so much accurate identifying information, we cannot conclude that Montes-Rodriguez pretended to be another person in his loan application simply because he supplied a false Social Security number. Hence, we conclude that Montes-Rodriguez did not assume a false identity.”
Though Colorado prosecutors do not believe the Supreme Court’s decision will have a far-reaching effect, the ruling makes me pretty nervous.
Coastal Credit LLC has been financing Sub-Prime customers for Independent Dealers for over 22 years. We also have an office in Ohio. If you wuld like some contact information, please don’t hesitate to call me at 800-969-2729. Todd Brister.
This is crazy!
Incredible. Sadly, I think this is typical for Colorado
I don’t understand. Subprime (and near-prime or even prime) finance companies have been profiting tremendously from this exact use of a fake social (with correct other info) for the past 20+ years. In fact, many companies owe most of their success to these customers, particularly in the western states. Isn’t it a little disingenuous for us, as an industry, to rise in indignation over this?
Michael Duke is correct when he states that finance companies and banks have profited from this type of customer for years. Unfortunately the person whose SS # was taken by Montes-Rodriquez was not a part of this tacit agreement. It was the consumer that brought the issue to light, not a lender whining about a defaulted contract that they failed to verify. What is illegal is in fact illegal. This is a bit of law making from the bench.
I just wonder if there should be a legal difference between assuming a false identity (impersonating another person, etc), and giving a social security number that has not been assigned to you on a credit or work application. I suppose one is identity theft and the other is fraud. Maybe we’re using the wrong hammer of “Identity Theft” to lump all these issues together. What if the social had not been assigned yet? I had a case once like that, and then the social got created/assigned to a legal immigrant from Canada, who then filed Identity Theft on the guy who used the social before him (before it was even a social). Retroactive Identity Theft, I guess. Then there is the question of damages, if the bureaus never touch….
Illegal is illegal, but application fraud is application fraud. We’ve been defrauded many times, bad socials, duplicate/fraud titles, phony jobs with phony documentation, drivers licenses, and 100 other things, by U.S.-born criminals, with INTENT to steal our money and not give it back. We take those to the DA, and get told it’s a civil matter. They seem to be saying it’s ok to use a fake social when you already have one, but if you don’t—look out. Well, fine, but let’s at least admit that we’re using all this Identity Theft stuff over the past several years as way to enforce immigration laws, and that’s primarily who they apply to.