TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A woman is facing grand theft and fraud charges after investigators say she used another person's identity to rent a Tallahassee apartment.
Brandi Symone Currington, 24, of St. Petersburg was arrested Thursday and freed on a $15,000 bond. She is accused of renting a Seminole Grand apartment and using a Colorado woman as her guarantor.
According to court documents, a Colorado woman told a Leon County Sheriff's Office investigator that she had received a request for $4,937.87 from The Collier Companies, which owns the Seminole Grand apartments at 1505 W. Tharpe Street.
The lease agreement listed the victim as a guarantor for Currington's apartment rental and included the victim's name, address, date of birth, driver's license number and social security number.
However, the victim said had no ties to the Tallahassee area and had never heard of Currington, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Deputies write Currington listed the Colorado woman as her "aunt" on a guaranty form and provided an address and an email address on the form.
An investigation revealed Currington was billed for rent from Jan. 17 to July 1, with the June and July charges being for accelerated rent.
A Collier Companies manager told investigators Currington signed a lease on Jan. 5, with a scheduled move-in date of Jan. 17, at a rate of $195 for January and $404 for subsequent months. She then signed another lease with Seminole Grand on Jan. 30, for an extension from Aug. 1, to July 31, 2019, at a rate of $404 monthly.
In total, the company said the fraud cost them $3,029.87.
Waiving her Miranda Rights, Currington spoke with an investigator on June 15. She said she paid rent in cash or money order the first time and through an app the second time.
Currington said she found someone she didn't know on a "GroupMe" app who signed the victim's name to her lease after Currington signed her name.
"I asked him to do it for me, so if he was to put somebody else name down, all I knew is I got a text saying I was approved, so I just went click and sign sign sign I didn't even read through everything," Currington told investigators.
She denied knowing that the person who signed her lease was involved in fraudulent activity but confessed she later learned he was. When asked why she didn't do anything about it, Currington said she had already moved out of the apartment by then and it was "a little too late."
Based on the investigation, Currington was charged with grand theft of $300 or more but less than $5,000, use/possession of the identification of another person without consent, and using fraud to obtain property valued at under $20,000.
