Woman Arrested for Identity Theft While Temping for Doctor's Office

Stamford police arrested a 42-year-old Mount Vernon, NY, woman Monday afternoon for making fraudulent charges to credit cards she had access to while doing temp work for a Stamford-based doctor's office.

According to Sgt. Robert Shawinsky, Melba Witter of 461 South 3rd Ave. was employed by Staff Providers, a Wilton-based staffing agency, to work at the office of Dr. Leslie Coleman at 144 Morgan Street in Stamford. While the manager was out of the office, Shawinsky said that Witter collected co-pays from patients, which she was unauthorized to do.

For the patients that were paying with credit cards, Witter told them that she did not know how to operate the credit card machine, so she made print copies of each credit card and told them that the payments would be processed by the office manager.

A couple of weeks later, patients began calling the office and telling the manager that there were fraudulent charges being made to their credit cards. When the police were called to investigate, the office referred them to Staff Providers. They identified Witter, who eventually turned herself in. According to Shawinsky, three patients reported that Witter made charges that totaled up to over $1,400.

Witter was arrested and charged with 11 counts of third-degree identity theft, illegal use of a credit card and sixth-degree larceny.

Other Arrests

Joshecko Coleman, 34, of 21 Montauk Drive, Stamford, was arrested Tuesday for sixth-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny.

Rohan Minott, 41, of 15 Carolina Road, Stamford, was arrested Monday for two counts of third-degree assault and two counts of risk of injury to a child.

Olivier Solon, 19, of 109 Tresser Blvd., Stamford, was arrested Tuesday for violation of a protective order.