Warrant: Stolen tax files led to ID theft case

Jeffrey Glenn Toohey, 42, is charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count each of aiding and abetting identity theft, aiding and abetting access device fraud and bank fraud.

Toohey stole more than 400 tax files from a Jackson Hewitt office in New Bern in late 2010 and used the names and Social Security numbers of those people to set up merchant credit accounts to buy goods for himself and a coffee shop he ran in town, the search warrant states.

He and a friend also filed tax returns under numerous names and had refunds wired into bank accounts that Toohey had set up, according to the search warrant. They used public Wi-Fi spots to file the returns to avoid detection.

Searches conducted by federal authorities last July linked Toohey to 35 fake Marine Corps identification badges, 19 counterfeit North Carolina driver's licenses and 15 fake driver's licenses from Florida and Texas, the search warrant states.

The latest search warrant, which was issued March 21, is to access a BB&T account set up in Lumberton under another man's name, where one of the tax refunds was sent.