Man pleads guilty to identity theft

Joshua Larry Kirby, a 21-year-old from South Carolina,confessed in front of a federal court to conspiracy to commit identity theft, Independent Mail reports. According to the police report, authorities spotted Kirby driving a stolen car and came in pursuit. Kirby fled and eventually wrecked the vehicle. Upon his arrest, police searched the totaled car and found multiple stolen pieces of information, including mail and personal identification documents. Police further charged Kirby with identity fraud after finding that he forged checks under false names. District Judge Henry M. Herlong of Greenville will sentence Kirby after reviewing his pre-sentence report. The maximum penalty he can receive is 15 years in jail and a $250,000 fine. In 2010, South Carolina had more than 2,700 cases of identity theft, which ranked 29th in the United States per capita, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Over the past 10 years, identity theft has become increasingly wide-spread. In 2001, approximately 86,000 identity theft complaints were reported by the FTC, compared to 251,000 in 2010 - a three-fold increase.