Stacey Lavette Hendricks, a 49-year-old resident of Leesburg, FL was a former medical clinic employee who has pleaded guilty to wire fraudulence and aggravated identity theft. He was found to have impermissibly accessed patients’ protected health information (PHI) and contacted identity thieves to sell the information.
As a former administrative employee at a number of Florida state medical clinics, Hendricks was given access to the PHI of patients, which she used to steal patient data from the unnamed medical clinics. The stolen information comprised names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers. Hendricks sold the data to identity thieves and used the information to deceive businesses as well.
The United States Secret Service looked into the incident and apprehended Hendricks after she tried to sell stolen patient data to an undercover agent. Law enforcement officers obtained a warrant to search her house and car and they found 113 different patients’ information that Hendricks stole from the medical clinics.
The United States District Court located in the Middle District of Florida in Ocala charged Hendricks who pleaded guilty to the following charges:
- two counts of fraud with identification documents: Aggravated identity theft and possession of means of identification with the intention to perpetrate felony.
- one count of wire fraud
Though the date for sentencing has not yet been set, Hendricks currently faces a jail term of a maximum of 20 years for the wire fraud charge. For aggravated identity theft, Hendricks faces a mandatory 2-year consecutive jail term.