A Paulding County chiropractor is accused of using patient IDs to steal more than $264,000.
Christopher Dana Lockerman, 42, of Lockerman Family Chiropractic in Hiram, faces eight counts of financial identity fraud and one count of theft by deception, Cpl. Brandon Gurley with the Paulding County Sheriff's Office said.
Lockerman is accused of using his patients’ information to establish lines of credit with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank or other financial institutions and receive money from those accounts without permission.
“It appears that some of the accounts were opened with the permission of the patient in order to pay for chiropractic services while other accounts were opened in patients’ names without their knowledge or permission,” Major Tom Murphy with the sheriff's office said. “However, Lockerman would withdraw all of the money approved on the line of credit instead of what was agreed on for the chiropractic services.”
Patients did not realize they were the victims of identity frauds until collection agencies alerted them to the delinquent accounts, Gurley said. Detectives began investigating Lockerman in February. Anyone who may have been a victim is asked to call the sheriff's office at 770-443-3015.
Lockerman was arrested Wednesday and later released on $26,550 bond, Gurley said.
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