O.C. sheriff's employee lived lavished lifestyle by stealing from her grandma. She now faces prison

[ad_1] For years, an Orange County Sheriff’s Division worker was residing massive, spending lavishly on Santa Ana dinners, West Hollywood bars and a nightclub in Las Vegas. Nevertheless it wasn’t the division’s payroll footing the invoice — it was her unsuspecting grandmother, authorities stated.

Roxana C. Laub, 33, of Santa Ana, not too long ago pleaded responsible to 2 felony fees for forging checks and fraudulently utilizing bank cards in her grandmother’s title, in response to a U.S. Division of Justice information launch.

She faces as much as 30 years in federal jail for the financial institution fraud depend and as much as 15 years in federal jail for the identification theft depend, in response to the DOJ. Her sentencing listening to is scheduled for April 9, 2025.

Laub, whose employment with the division has included a stint as a uniformed correctional officer on the Orange County jail, is accused of stealing her grandmother’s identification and financial savings for greater than 5 years, prosecutors stated.

From 2015 to 2017, she cast her grandmother’s signature on greater than 20 checks with a purpose to fraudulently deposit some $45,000 from her grandmother’s checking account into her personal, prosecutors stated.

Her 75-year-old grandmother had no clue what was occurring, prosecutors stated.

Throughout this time, Laub tried to pose as her grandmother on the cellphone with the financial institution to extract private details about her grandmother’s account. After admitting she wasn’t the grandmother, she put her precise grandmother on the cellphone who instructed the financial institution worker she had no data of the checks made payable to Laub, prosecutors stated.

Laub then took the cellphone away from her grandmother and instructed the financial institution worker that her grandmother was feeling sick and unable to speak any additional, although the worker requested that the grandmother be put again on the road, prosecutors stated.

Then from March 2020 to September 2022, Laub used her grandmother’s bank card to cost 1000's of {dollars} for private bills reminiscent of meals at eating places in Santa Ana and West Hollywood, bars in West Hollywood and an evening membership in Las Vegas, prosecutors stated. She used her grandmother’s checking account to make greater than $14,000 in funds for these bank card fees with out her grandmother’s data, prosecutors stated.

Laub has proven some regret for her acts and, in a textual content thread uncovered by authorities brokers, instructed a member of the family “I do know what I did is unforgivable,” prosecutors stated. Laub has additionally agreed to pay again all the cash she stole from her grandmother, prosecutors stated.

The crimes have been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company Workplace of the Inspector Common with help from the Lengthy Seaside Police Division.