Medical assistant pleads guilty to identity theft and using Montco patients' info to buy home goods and rent an apartment [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

Jul. 12—A medical assistant has pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges related to identify theft involving seven Montgomery County patients, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Tuesday.

Ashley Latimer, 35, of Philadelphia, will serve two to five years in a state prison, followed by two years of probation. Latimer will also lose her medical assistant license and have to pay more than $31,000 in restitution for purchases made at Wayfair, an online furniture store.

Latimer worked as a medical assistant at Montgomery County locations of Axia Women's Health in the first half of 2022, according to a criminal complaint. She took photos of patients' forms and screenshots of personal information from electronic medical records. Latimer used that information to open credit cards, make purchases, and rent an apartment.

"The defendant was a licensed medical professional trusted to care for and protect her patients," Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a statement announcing the plea. "She broke that trust by stealing their information and bankrolling her own personal spending spree."

On one occasion, Latimer took a photo of the driver's license of a pregnant patient who came to the Rosemont office of Axia Women Health in March 2022, detectives said in the criminal complaint. Latimer opened a Wayfair credit card using the license and personal information from the patient's medical chart. Then she ordered 45 items, with a total value of $9,995.57, from Wayfair in the patient's name.

Over time, Latimer purchased more than $31,000 in items from Wayfair. She also secured an apartment under a patient's name.

Michael Huff, a public defender representing Latimer in this case, said that his client was remorseful and wanted to take responsibility.

"She's looking forward to getting it behind her and moving forward in her life," Huff said.

Latimer had previously pleaded guilty in unrelated cases to insurance fraud in Montgomery County and computer theft charges in Philadelphia.

Before working at Axia, a network of clinics operating in multiple states in the Northeast and Midwest, Latimer worked at an urgent care clinic in South Philadelphia for a few months in 2021. She was fired after her boss suspected that she stole $3,200 from the cash drawer, according to the complaint.

She was arrested in November for the scheme involving Axia patients and pleaded guilty Monday at a Montgomery County courthouse to seven counts of identity theft — one for each patient — and four counts of computer theft for accessing patients' electronic records.

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