EVERETT – A woman on the lam for embezzling more than $500,000 from California businesses was arrested yesterday in Mill Creek after she allegedly tried to buy a brand new SUV with a check stolen from a north Everett business.
Lina Hinds, 38, has a lengthy history of stealing from companies where she works, investigators said this afternoon at a press conference.
Everett police arrested Hinds for investigation of identity theft and forgery after she tried to buy the 2007 Chevy Trailblazer with the stolen check.
Hinds, using a fake name, had been hired about a month ago as an accounting manager at the business from where the check was taken.
An Everett District Court judge today set bail at $75,000. Hinds also is being held without bail for the charges she faces in California.
Hinds told detectives she moved to Washington because she didn’t want to face sentencing for an embezzlement conviction out of California., Everett police detective Molly Spellman said.
While awaiting sentencing in Alameda County, Calif., Hinds allegedly embezzled $200,000 from another California business where she was hired as a bookkeeper, said Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney in San Mateo County.
“We had no idea where she was until we got the call from Washington State,” Wagstaffe said. “She’s very smooth. Somebody like Lina Hinds can talk her way out of trouble.”
Hinds is a “high-end, prolific identity thief,” Everett police Sgt. Mark Thacker said.
Everett police seized bogus Social Security cards, credit cards and rental agreements from her home. They even found a fake badge for a criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Detectives began investigating Hinds after north Everett business owners reported that they believed their new accounting manager had stolen a check and used one personal information from one of them to buy a new sport utility vehicle at a local dealership.
The business owners did some sleuthing on their own and discovered that their employee was using a fake name and was wanted in California for embezzlement.
Everett police arrested Hinds at her home Thursday night.
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