California Woman Charged With Felony Identity Theft In Insurance Scam

By Staff Reports

Christina Mejia, 31, was arraigned today on nine felony counts of insurance fraud and identity theft after she allegedly stole multiple victims’ identities to purchase an insurance policy and filed a fraudulent claim involving a 2020 Cadillac.

These additional charges are the result of a California Department of Insurance investigation intended to protect both consumers and businesses from fraud.

The Department began an investigation after an insurance company suspected one of their customers had misrepresented the date of an accident involving a 2020 Cadillac. The investigation revealed the customer involved in the claim was actually a victim of identity theft and Mejia filed the claim under the victim’s name.

On March 3, 2021, hours after Mejia purchased the policy with stolen personal information, she filed a claim under her victim’s name where she alleged the vehicle was damaged when Mejia struck a pothole in the road. The 2020 Cadillac was registered to one of Mejia’s victims, and she used the name of another victim to purchase the insurance policy. Neither victim knew Mejia personally and had no idea their identities had been stolen.

Investigators discovered that although Mejia opened the policy under her victim’s name, she used her own personal email account to receive and sign the policy documents. She was also positively identified by a local body repair shop employee as the person who brought the 2020 Cadillac in for repair.

Mejia had previously been contacted by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department on two prior occasions for driving vehicles that were registered to one of the victims in this case. On June 23, 2021, Mejia was arrested by the Fresno County Help Eliminate Auto Theft (H.E.A.T.) Task Force on ten unrelated felony counts of grand theft auto and identity theft for using the victim’s identity to purchase at least two vehicles from local dealerships.