Woman uses stolen credit card to pay court fines

HURRICANE – A woman was arrested last week after allegedly stealing a credit card from her place of employment and racking up charges, even using the stolen card to pay her $291 court fine at the Washington City Justice Court.

Officers responded to a fraud report at a Hurricane business where the owner told authorities an employee had taken a business credit card without consent, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Hurricane City Police Department in support of the arrest. After the owner noticed multiple charges on his account, he checked the place where the card was stored and noticed it was missing.

Malissa Anne Culbertson, of Cedar City, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 6, 2015 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News
Malissa Anne Culbertson, of Cedar City, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 6, 2015 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The owner identified 24-year-old Malissa Anne Culbertson as one of the last people to have had the credit card, according to the statement, and said he believed she had made the eight fraudulent charges.

Authorities met with Culbertson at the Hurricane City Police Department Tuesday where she allegedly admitted to having taken the credit card from the business on Oct. 1.

“Malissa stated she knew what she was doing was wrong,” the arresting officer wrote in the statement.

Culbertson admitted to using the card on eight different occasions in both Washington and Iron counties on purchases including cigarettes, gas and a phone card, as well as to pay her $291 court fines.

“Malissa admitted to using the card to pay her court fines out of Washington City Justice Court,” the officer wrote. “I verified with the court that Malissa had indeed paid her court fines with the card.”

Culbertson was arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.

She was charged with a third-degree felony for unlawful acquisition of a financial card without consent, along with six class B misdemeanor counts of knowingly using a false financial transaction card and one class B misdemeanor for theft.

Washington County only charged Culbertson with six of the eight fraudulent credit card charges since two of the credit card charges were made in Iron County.

Judge John Walton, of the 5th District Court, ordered $35,000 bail for Culbertson’s release pending trial.

She was found indigent by the court during her initial court appearance Thursday and will be represented by court-appointed attorney Jay Winward. Culbertson is scheduled to make her next court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Culbertson has since been released on bail.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

 

 

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12 Comments

  • tcrider October 12, 2015 at 8:38 am

    what a scum bucket,
    this is blatant disregard for the law and disrespect in general for authorty.
    they should make her clean the toilets on a continuous basis at the jail.

  • tcrider October 12, 2015 at 8:39 am

    what a scum bucket,
    this is blatant disregard for the law and disrespect in general for authority.
    they should make her clean the toilets on a continuous basis at the jail.

    • Real Life October 13, 2015 at 6:30 am

      Okay, we get it this time.

  • LocalTourist October 12, 2015 at 9:34 am

    So, will they let her use that same card to post her bail?
    DER.

  • sagemoon October 12, 2015 at 10:42 am

    Idiot.

  • anybody home October 12, 2015 at 12:29 pm

    This is one of the funniest and dumbest criminals yet.

  • Mean Momma October 12, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    Well she is a genius.

  • ladybugavenger October 12, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    hahahahahaha….this is so stupid, its funny.

  • fun bag October 12, 2015 at 3:40 pm

    Well, at least she didn’t use her tithing money, thank heaven. she will be blessed.

  • 42214 October 12, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    Some habits are hard to break.

  • Dolly October 12, 2015 at 5:31 pm

    Can’t believe some idiot bailed her out! They better not leave their wallet unattended!

  • .... October 12, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    No problem. when she gets out she will probably get a checking account set up.

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