Montgomery Debt Collector and Son-in-Law Hit With 85-Year Sentence for ID Theft Tax Fraud

Montgomery’s Quentin Collick and Duluth’s Deatrice Williams were both handed down heavy prison sentences for their roles in a massive identity theft tax fraud scheme.

Collick, 51, was sentenced to serve 85 months in prison, while Williams received a 51-month term. Both were found guilty by a jury of conspiring to file false claims, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Collick also faced additional charges of theft of public funds.

The scheme, which spanned from 2011 to 2012, was orchestrated with Corey Thompson, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in jail. Williams, an employee of a debt collection company in Norcross, Georgia, had access to a database containing personal information of individuals with medical debts. She stole this sensitive data and provided it to Collick, her son-in-law.

Using the stolen identities, Collick and Thompson filed false tax returns, fraudulently claiming refunds. Thompson, who was working as an independent contractor for a cable company at the time, used his expertise to hijack customers’ internet service to file the false returns under their names. The refunds were then directed to pre-paid debit cards, which were intercepted by the U.S. Postal Service before they reached Montgomery.

Several tax refund checks were also mailed by the IRS based on the fraudulent returns, and Collick cashed them. This investigation was a collaborative effort between special agents of IRS – Criminal Investigation and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Michael Boteler, Jason H. Poole, Alexander Effendi, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd A. Brown.

For more information or to arrange interviews with law enforcement officials, please contact Clark Morris at usaalm.press@usdoj.gov or (334) 551-1755.