Robert Lee Downey Jr. had a hunch when a background check cost him a better job: Ray Aldridge is behind this.

It seems he was right.

Years ago, a career criminal named Ray Douglas Aldridge, who has lived in Georgia and the Carolinas, hijacked Downey's name, giving it to authorities several times after getting arrested. He even pleaded guilty to crimes as Downey.

The real Robert Lee Downey Jr., a 35-year-old long-haul trucker living in Arkansas, thought he solved his problems in 2000 when the Georgia Bureau of Investigation gave him a certificate clearing him of several crimes attributed to him.

It turns out Downey was not done with Aldridge.

In March, Downey discovered Aldridge was in a Georgia prison under his name. Aldridge had racked up a new criminal charge: possession of marijuana. Once again, as Downey.

Downey's fiancée checked the Georgia Department of Corrections Web site using Aldridge's name. She found nothing. Then she typed in "Robert Lee Downey." She got a hit — a picture of Aldridge. Four versions of Aldridge's real name were listed as his aliases.

"Every time I turn around, I'm in jail somewhere or getting a DUI," the real Robert Downey said last week.

Criminals often use others' names. Computer databases and fingerprint files allow law enforcement officials to quickly determine criminal histories and exactly who is whom. Sometimes the wrong information will live on in the system, even after it was supposedly corrected.

"It's unfortunate. It causes some real problems for those who are victims," said Stan Cooper, Georgia's director of probations, who is familiar with this case. "It's sometimes a very difficult thing to make a positive identification of folks."

Aldridge, a 33-year-old cousin of Downey's ex-wife, started using Downey as his alter-ego nearly 15 years ago, according to records.

Aldridge, in an interview Friday at Central State Prison in Macon, wore a uniform still bearing the name Robert L. Downey. He said he is known as Ray Aldridge in prison and for years has switched between the identities.

"When I got nothing to hide, I use my own name," he said. "If I got something to hide, I use the other name."

Aldridge said Downey gave him his birth certificate and Social Security card in 1993 to help him out with probation. Aldridge said he hadn't seen Downey in years and was not apologetic.

"He knew the consequence," he said.

Downey laughed at the contention that he gave his personal information to Aldridge. "No way," he said.

Downey said he has had problems obtaining driver's licenses, buying firearms and getting jobs.

In a 1999 affidavit to rid a South Carolina arrest from his name, he wrote, "It has been impossible to find employment at the rate of pay I normally make."

Downey is working to get a license to sell insurance, but he worries his past will pop up and bite him.

"I'm not an alcoholic; I'm not a drug addict; I've never broke into anyone's home before," said Downey. "It's tough being a truck driver with those charges."

Downey's troubles started in 1994, when Aldridge was arrested in North Georgia's Gordon County for burglary and possession of a weapon during a felony. He had identity papers saying he was Downey and pleaded guilty to the charges as "Robert Downey." He was sentenced to 15 years probation.

In 1996, "Robert Downey" got a DUI in South Carolina. The booking mugshot is a photo of Aldridge. The real Downey said he is still working to clear himself from a public drunkeness charge in North Carolina.

The scam has worked well for Aldridge through the years, said Marcus Pittman, a detective for the Clayton County solicitor's office.

"He just figures he'll ride it out as long as he can," Pittman said.

Downey figures authorities should be a bit more skeptical when hearing the name "Robert Downey Jr.," given the actor of the same name's famous drug-related run-ins with the law. (They're not related.)

Aldridge ended up serving a five-year stint — under his own name — in South Carolina from 2001 to 2006. He was charged with larceny and kidnapping and was added to the sex offender registry, officials said.

He was then turned over to Gordon County, where he was in violation of his 1994 parole sentence. According to department records, Gordon detective Bill Soulios said, Aldridge was there under his own name.

"He was Ray Aldridge on April 28, 2006, at 8 a.m." when he was checked out of the jail in Calhoun, said Soulios. "And then at some point he's not."

DOC spokesman Paul Czachowski said, "His sentencing package had Downey on it. When they typed in the Social [Security number], Downey popped up. We entered it the way the county sent it."

He said the system has corrected the information.

A Georgia Crime Information Center report that was run in April still had the 1994 crimes listed under Robert Lee Downey Jr.'s name but had Aldridge listed as a probation violator in 2006 in the Gordon County jail.

The report also lists a December 2007 arrest — of "Downey" — for possession of marijuana. It turns out that, while serving in the state system at the Clayton Diversion Center, guards found marijuana in Aldridge's cell and charged him with misdemeanor possession, said Pittman, the Clayton County investigator who started looking into the matter after Downey's exasperated fiancée called looking for help.

"[Aldridge] pleaded guilty, but under Robert Lee Downey's name," said Pittman. "Why not? He's on a roll with the name."

Authorities said the fingerprint database has gotten more sophisticated and that the original Downey/Aldridge mistake would likely not happen today.

John Bankhead, spokesman for the GBI, said victims must provide authorities with their fingerprints so they can be matched against the records before they are straightened out. Downey has done so. Bankhead last week said the GCIC report now has Aldridge listed as the perpetrator of all those crimes, with no mention of Downey. The Department of Corrections said Aldridge is now listed as himself.

Pittman has asked the Clayton County district attorney's office to file felony charges against Aldridge for using a false name in the 2007 marijuana charge in prison. This, Pittman hopes, will keep Aldridge behind bars longer.

Still, Downey worries about Aldridge, who is set for parole on Sept. 1. "As soon as he gets out, I know he'll do it again," Downey said.