A Tampa man who misplaced his driver’s license said an identity thief used it to rent an apartment, presented it twice while being ticketed for speeding, and actually showed up to traffic court to take a plea.

  • Javoris Chester, 33, victim of identity theft
  • Thief got Chester's driver's license suspended
  • Balance on fraudulent apartment rental also charged to Chester

“It’s crazy and I think something needs to be done quickly,” said victim Javoris Chester, 33.  “How many other times has this happened?”  
 
Chester said he first found out about the fraud when his job notified him in May that he could no longer work because his driver’s license had been suspended in Polk County. The victim looked into it and said he discovered that someone had gotten a speeding ticket in his name from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Christmas Day in 2016.
 
Last month, Chester said he submitted a motion to Polk traffic hearing officer Margery Wolf explaining what happened. According to court records, Wolf denied the request for a hearing, stating the ‘court date was on February 13 and someone appeared to plea no contest’.
 
“Polk’s telling me, ‘hey, guess what man? Tough luck. We don’t want to hear nothing,’” Chester said. “’Pay the ticket, take the class and get your stuff straight. We don’t care if you did it or not.’”
 
Chester said he paid the nearly $400 fine and completed 8 hours of traffic school in order to get his license back quickly.
 
“Would I like my money back? You damn right I would because I didn’t do nothing,” he said. “I didn’t commit no crimes.”

Polk Traffic Hearing Officer Margery Wolf declined an on-camera interview for this story, but said her office is taking another look into Chester's case.

Thief rented apartment with stolen ID

Chester told us after he found out about the Polk ticket, he ran his credit report and discovered that someone had also rented an apartment in his name. He immediately went to the Wildwood Acres Apartments to talk to the manager about it.
 
“The front office manager walks out, ‘hey, are you Mr. Chester?’ 'Yeah, I’m Mr. Chester,’” he said. “‘Well, guess what? We’ve been waiting for you. We’ve recently had an issue here where we found out that you weren’t the person who came in and filled out all this paperwork. They’ve actually been caught due to a domestic violence situation that happened in the apartment complex.’”
 
Chester said apartment manager Laura Blevins gave him a copy of the lease with his forged signature on it, a paper copy of the license he lost and a fraudulent earning statement. Blevins also wrote a notarized letter stating, “The resident who had claimed to be Mr. Chester was ultimately evicted and the account was forwarded to collections. The real Javoris Chester came into the office… He was not the same resident that had lived at our community.”

Chester said he was grateful for the letter and the lead on a potential suspect but was upset the Wildwood Acres Apartments sent the balance owed, $3,466.26, to a collection agency in his name.
 
“Now I’m looking at them like, ‘how in God’s name, you know it’s not me, yet and still, you put it on my credit?’” he said. “‘Oh, well, we have to put the onus on somebody. Your information is all we have on file. So, we have to put it on there.’”

We contacted the apartment complex’s corporate office, The Habitat Company, and asked why Chester’s credit was hit with the fraudulent rent back fees. The representative we spoke to said she would investigate, but did not get back to us by our publishing deadline.

Chester said he filed a complaint regarding the outstanding balance with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Another county, another speeding ticket

Chester's troubles do not end there. He also discovered the identity thief got another speeding ticket from the Florida Highway Patrol in Hillsborough County last August.

Chester hired attorney David Gilbert to help him fight the tickets. Gilbert said when Hillsborough Traffic Court received his motion, they cleared the license suspension and set a hearing for October 5.
 
"Hillsborough is a little more lenient on these issues than Polk County,” Gilbert said. "There should be maybe another check, another level of checks and balances to verify the identity of who's showing up in court."
 
Gilbert said there’s a defect in the traffic court system verifying the identity of who’s appearing before the court that could be solved with a fingerprint.
 
"In these courts, a lot of them are not recorded at all. So, there's basically no way at all to go back and say 'that's not the person,'” he said. “Leave a thumbprint on a document just so we can go back and verify that was the actual person present. It’s not asking too much."
 
Gilbert added that the first line of defense starts with the officer who pulls the driver over.
 
"It's the officer's job, basically, to identify the driver,” Gilbert said. “I can see where the traffic court's kind of blowing this off because the officer is the one who should've identified the driver when they issued the citation."

FHP spokesperson Sgt. Steve Gaskins said troopers make a good faith effort through photo I.D. cards to identify drivers and have opened an investigation into the matter.

The battle continues

After we pressed the issue in Polk, Wolf said her office would into look into the issues surrounding the matter while declining a request for an on-camera interview.

Meanwhile, Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Carrie Horstman said the agency will clear the speeding ticket off of Chester’s record after he meets with the deputy who issued the citation, to confirm it wasn’t him driving that day.

The married father of two young boys told us this ordeal has cost his family a lot.

“I’m going from salary to barely over making minimum wage, so you can only imagine the change in the lifestyle," Chester said. "Groceries normally stacked in the refrigerator to the last ten days of the month. Now I got to scrap it out.”