BILLINGS, Mont.—A Billings woman has admitted using a stolen credit card number to buy high-end clothes and jewelry at a Red Lodge resort as part of a scheme in which she and her husband stayed at resorts throughout the West using credit card numbers they had fished out of the trash.
Jennifer K. Tucker, 39, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Billings to wire fraud and to aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. A plea agreement calls for three other counts in an indictment to be dismissed at sentencing.
Tucker told Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull that she only did what her husband, 40-year-old Jesse G. Tucker of Texarkana, Texas, asked her to do and disputed the level of her involvement.
She also said she had nothing to do with making methamphetamine in the couple’s room at the Rock Creek Resort in Red Lodge.
Last month, Cebull sentenced Jesse Tucker to more than 13 years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft. Cebull also ordered him to pay $111,000 in restitution, which included $72,000 for the cost of cleaning the Rock Creek Resort room where authorities say the couple cooked meth.
The Tuckers were arrested near Joliet in February 2005 after fleeing the resort and leading police on a high-speed chase. Officers found the couple had drugs, drug-making equipment and more than 1,500 stolen credit card numbers and names, court records said.
Prosecutors said that from October 2004 until their arrest, the Tuckers used stolen credit card information to stay at hotels and resorts in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
Jennifer Tucker remains in custody. Sentencing is set for Oct. 9.
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Information from: Billings Gazette,
