Brazilian scammer’s incompetent attempt at ID theft uses pic of Jack Nicholson
A barmy Brazilian failed to adhere to what would probably be considered one of the first rules of identity theft: don’t try and pass yourself off as an internationally-recognised member of the Hollywood A-list.
This principle seemed to elude one resident of Recife in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco however, as his government-issued ID came illustrated with a picture of Jack Nicholson.
Ricardo Sergio Freire de Barros was arrested after he reportedly tried to use the fake ID bearing the two time Oscar-winning actor’s likeness to open a bank account.
Arresting officers demonstrated keen powers of detection, noting: “There is no resemblance between the suspect and actor.”
The image used was a portrait taken by New York photographer Martin Schoeller in 2003 that appeared in Entertainment Weekly.
Underneath the snap, Barros had made some effort to cover up the scam by signing the name ‘João Pedro dos Santos’. And that’s As Good as It Got.
Having been under investigation for three months, Barros was arrested outside the bank on Tuesday.
He had five other false IDs on him – although only one contained the picture of the 74-year-old leading man.
Reports claim that Barros also had 36 cheque books, four credit cards and other false documents − including a statement of income for nearly $1.2 million − at the time of arrest.
The 47-year-old was charged with using fake documents and falsifying public documents.
mirror.co.uk
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