Tax preparer charged with fraud

Clayton, N.C. — Police on Monday charged a tax preparer for Liberty Tax with 28 counts of fraud.

Angela Lea White, 23, of 101 Holts Pond Road in Princeton, was charged with four counts each of obtaining property by false pretense and financial card fraud, six counts each of identity theft, common law forgery and common law uttering and two counts of attempting to obtain property by false pretense.

She was being held Monday in the Johnston County Jail under a $545,000 bond.

White, who also goes by the name Angela Lea Chigo-Chiguila, assisted Hispanic customers with their personal income tax forms, and investigators said she manipulated the forms so that refunds would be loaded onto a temporary debit card. She also took out a refund-anticipation loan using customer identities, investigators said.

She purchased about $7,500 in goods and services with the debit cards, investigators said.

Liberty Tax had no knowledge of the fraud and cooperated with the criminal investigation, police said.