I Had a Fake I.D. Once. Bought Beer With It. These Folks? A Little Busier With Theirs.

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Jan. 23 2009 at 4:04 PM

Categories: Crime

Sixty-six-year-old Levander Carlton McLean and his wife Rita Murphy McLean, who's 21 years his junior, are gonna be spending a little time apart -- five years or so, give or take, thanks to U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, who yesterday sentenced the Garland couple to federal prison for using fake driver's licenses, stolen W-2s and "130 false federal income tax returns" to pocket hundreds of thousands in ill-gotten gains. And, they had someone on the inside of the Texas Department of Public Safety! The U.S. Attorney's release follows, and if it's not good enough for a whole movie, maybe an episode of a USA Network series?

HUSBAND AND WIFE SENTENCED IN IDENTITY THEFT CASE

DALLAS - Levander Carlton McLean, 66, and his wife, Rita Murphy McLean, 45, of Garland, Texas, who were convicted at trial in September for conspiracy to unlawfully use identification documents, were each sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

Levander McLean was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison and Judge Kinkeade immediately remanded him to the custody of the U.S. Marshal. Rita McLean was sentenced to 51 months in prison and Judge Kinkeade ordered that she surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by April 22, 2009. Both were ordered to pay $208,600.92 in restitution, jointly and severally.

In July 2001, Levander and Rita Murphy McLean were able to convince their nephew, a Texas Department of Public Safety driver's license technician, to make them a fraudulent Texas driver's license and a fraudulent Texas identification card in the names of two innocent people living in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The McLeans used these identification documents, as well as a fraudulent Michigan driver's license that Rita McLean obtained in the name of an innocent Texas resident, to open several fraudulent bank accounts in Dallas, Michigan, and North Carolina. From 2002 through 2004, the McLeans deposited more than $200,000 in proceeds from more than 130 false federal income tax returns, which had been filed in the names of real taxpayers using stolen W-2s, into these fraudulent accounts.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jacks praised the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steve Fahey and Phelesa Guy prosecuted the case.