Former Belleville senior home worker guilty of using patient's ID to pay utility bills

A former employee of St. Paul's Senior Community home in Belleville has pleaded guilty to using patients' personal information to get and maintain utility services at his own home — about 13 years after he was convicted of a similar crime.

Christopher Rhodes, 53, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty in federal court to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois announced Friday.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Donald Boyce, said Rhodes used the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of the patients at St. Paul's Senior Community to get and maintain utility services at his home.

Police found the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of some St. Paul's residents in Rhodes' home, along with utility bills in their names.

He faces up to 20 years in prison for three counts of wire fraud and a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

He is set to be sentenced Sept. 18.

Rhodes was previously convicted of using patient information at another nursing home in 2005 to set up credit cards. He was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

This story was originally published June 8, 2018 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Former Belleville senior home worker guilty of using patient's ID to pay utility bills."