Woman sentenced to four years for aggravated identity theft

Online Staff Report

Elizabeth Schmidtke, 27, pled guilty to aggravated identity theft and was sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections Dec. 16.

In May 2011, City of Rockford detectives began an investigation into photocopied checks that were located in another state but belonged to patients at a local medical office. Each check had handwriting next to it that appeared to be the handwriting of an employee, Schmidtke, at the local medical office. It was learned that Schmidtke would make copies of personal checks as patients paid for services and give them to another person. The copied checks were then used by others to create counterfeit checks that were cashed at stores. The majority of the victims were 60 years of age or older.

Aggravated identity theft is a class 1 felony with a sentencing range of probation or four to 15 years in the Department of Corrections, followed by two years of mandatory supervised release.