CLEARFIELD, Pa. – A Reynoldsville woman, accused of using an ex-boyfriend’s information to open multiple high interest loans, was sentenced Monday in Clearfield County Court.
(This article was provided by our News Partner GantDaily.com.)
Janessa Nicole Hummel, 33, pleased guilty to three felony counts: forgery, theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception, and was sentenced to 30 days to one year in jail with two years consecutive probation by President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman.
As part of her plea agreement, she paid over $2,300 in restitution prior to sentencing. If she had not paid that amount, she would have been given a five-month sentence instead.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim talked to police on Jan. 25, 2018, after he was arrested for domestic violence against Hummel because he discovered that she had opened several credit cards and high-interest loans in his name.
He provided copies of statements from a Clearfield bank and other information supporting his claim.
He explained to authorities he first became aware of the cards in November of 2017 after checking his information on credit monitoring service, which showed three different agencies had inquired about his credit.
When he asked Hummel if she had applied for these, she stated that she was “just looking.” She was advised not to open anything in his name.
Shortly after this, he received a call welcoming him to a new credit account. He told them to cancel it. When he asked Hummel about it, she denied it at first, then admitted she had opened it.
In the meantime, he said she was not giving him his mail, to further hide the accounts.
In December of 2017, he checked his credit score and found it had dropped due to a charge account he did not open. She also denied this, but eventually admitted to opening the account.
A few weeks later after he went to his bank to get a print out of his statements, he found money deposited into his account by various companies and then automatic withdrawals from the same businesses.
He called these companies and discovered Hummel’s e-mail address and cell phone number was associated with personal loans in his name from these agencies.
She had set up the loans by electronically signing his signature.
Further investigation in 2018 revealed she had obtained loans for $300 at an interest rate of 790.63 percent. The money was deposited into the victim’s checking account with payments coming from that same account.
A second loan from a different company was made to the checking account for $700 at 778.87 percent interest.
A third loan was made for $500.
Recordings of phone calls made to these agencies revealed a female, later identified as Hummel, as the one opening the accounts.
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