IDENTITY STEALING LEADS TO CAR THEFT.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne Staff Writer

Call it the steal-away plan.

With credit easy and cheap, criminals now are using false identities to buy luxury cars with little money down, which they drive straight onto barges bound for a thriving overseas black market.

Despite a dramatic 48 percent drop in auto thefts in Los Angeles County since 1990, investigators said the number of what they call ``fraud apps'' is increasing.

They include the case of a Riverside man who prosecutors say assumed the identity of a 6-year-old boy to buy cars in the San Fernando Valley.

``It's quite a big problem. You have these criminals with sophisticated computers and huge financial resources that can assume and create identities,'' said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Cmdr. John Bryan of the county's multi-agency Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention.

Since January 1999, TRAP has served 222 warrants and recovered 1,017 stolen vehicles countywide, although a fraction are related to fraudulent purchases, he said.

Partners with the Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association, TRAP made 429 felony auto theft arrests in 1999 and 29 misdemeanor arrests, Bryan said. About 100 of those arrests were fraudulent auto deals, he said.

``They can write a forged $30,000 check and get away with a $150,000 car that will never be paid for, using a false ID,'' said TRAP Detective Miguel Porras, who works with the task force's Valley team. ``It's a lot easier and less risky than stealing a car on the street.''

According to estimates by the U.S. Customs service, between 10,000 and 70,000 cars are shipped out of Long Beach and San Pedro annually to be sold overseas, Bryan said.

Popular markets for the stolen vehicles include China, Arab nations and republics of the former Soviet Union, police said.

And sometimes they end up stripped and dumped. Last week, several detectives gathered at Black and White Towing in Pacoima, trying to identify the owners of several towed cars believed to be stolen.

Los Angeles Police Commissioner and Galpin Motors owner Bert Boeckmann said Galpin receives about two fraudulent applications a month, but most are caught before the car leaves the lot.

``In the past we have seen our fraudulent customers arrested and released because there wasn't enough evidence or investigation,'' Boeckmann said. ``But with TRAP, they have all the resources under one roof specifically geared toward this problem.

``They're great and they move very fast. They're an outstanding group,'' he said.

Take the case of Rory Fontenelle, who investigators said is charged with several counts of fraud and auto theft for using a boy's identity to buy seven cars at Valley dealerships, including Woodland Hills Honda.

``He leased the cars in some cases because usually you can get away with one for far less money,'' said Deputy District Attorney Jim Koller.

Six of those cars have been recovered, and Fontenelle is scheduled to go to trial Tuesday in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Investigators and car dealers declined to provide details about how they capture suspected forgers because they said they don't want to tip them off.

Mike Swenson, controller at Woodland Hills Honda, said the Fontenelle case was one of two fraudulent applications they have encountered since early 1999.

``We haven't been targeted as heavily as some other dealerships, but it's a significant problem in the industry,'' Swenson said. ``We have a lot of safeguards in place with background checks to catch them, but these guys can be very sophisticated.''

Learning enough about someone's personal and financial information to apply for credit is difficult, but not impossible for the computer-savvy criminal, Bryan said. They create new documents and records by hacking into databases and stealing Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers and financial information, he said.

People whose identities have been stolen are not liable for the purchases, Bryan said.

Beyond making arrests, TRAP detectives work with auto dealers to teach them about crime patterns and train them in safeguarding their inventory.

``We have six auto theft teams working throughout the county, looking for these types of trends, and focusing on the big auto theft rings,'' Bryan said. ``The Valley has historically been known for a large number of chop shops (for stripping cars), but we're focusing big time on the ports of Long Beach and San Pedro where cars are being shipped.''

And the partnership with 250 auto dealerships countywide has kept the information flowing and the investigations numerous.

``The dealers let us know what's going on and we jump on those cases,'' Bryan said. ``It's a great partnership and it allows us to deal with their problems quickly.''