Two charged in suspected identity fraud operation

Police found garbage bags full of mail in a Calgary hotel room.

Two people are facing more than 40 charges after police found garbage bags of stolen mail, credit cards and personal information in a southeast Calgary hotel room.

Police were called to a hotel in the 9200 block of Macleod Trail S.E. on Monday, May 12 at about 3:00 p.m. for reports of suspicious activity in one of the rooms.

While police were investigating, the occupants of the room returned and were arrested.

A search warrant was executed and police seized:

Gian-Paulo Marco Bellabono, 37, of Calgary, is charged with:

Ashley Sawatzky, 23, of Calgary, is charged with:

Calgary police believe the two people were part of an organized group conducting mail theft that would be used to obtain personal information to create fraudulent cheques for bank fraud.

“There were over 60 different victims identified in this of which six will be victims that we will use in court to prosecute the accused,” said CPS S/Sgt. Kristie Verheul, of the Economic Crimes Unit.

S/Sgt Verheul says the victims were from the Woodbine area of the city and police suspect the activity had been going on for several months.

"The links to an organized group actually come from previous investigations and known offenders in previous investigations through the Calgary Police Service," said Verheul. "The mail that they were taking was a variety of things, bank statements, credit cards that were being delivered to people, government cheques that were being delivered to people."

Verhuel says anyone who regularly gets things like this in the mail should contact Canada Post if they suspect something is amiss and follow up with the person sending the mail.

She says you can also protect yourself by getting cheques deposited directly into accounts and having cheques and credit cards delivered to the financial institution for pickup.

Bellabono is scheduled to appear in court on June 16 and Sawtzky will appear in on June 24, 2014.