North Carolina woman charged on five counts of identity theft

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a former clerk of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles faces five counts of identity theft and 18 charges total, following a state probe that lasted over a year, WRAL.com reports. In January 2010, the State Bureau of Investigation observed 36-year-old Nicole Torres as copies of driver's licenses and Social Security cards were found at her desk. Authorities said that Torres used the stolen identities to apply for short term loans. On October 14, Torres was arrested and held in the Wake County jail with a $275,000 bond. Spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, Steve Abbott, told the news source that Torres had no information that compromised the DMV. Although DMV employees are required to have a background screening, DOT applicants don't. "We do not do background checks. It's not just DOT, it is all state agencies," Abbott said. "There is no background check required unless it's a job that would require access to private information, access to money or other issues like that." During 2010, there were approximately 6,000 identity theft complaints in North Carolina reported to the Federal Trade Commission, which ranks in the middle of the pack in the United States.