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A Missouri mom is facing up to five years behind bars stemming from an arrest back in 2018. Laura Ogelsby, 48, is accused of stealing her daughter’s identity to take out student loans in order to attend college and date younger men.
Ogelsby was scamming dudes in their 20s at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri while pretending to be her daughter, Lauren Ashleigh Hays. She obtained multiple loans, a driver’s license, and played up the role of being in her 20s.
“Everybody believed it,” Mountain View Police Department Chief Jamie Perkins said, via the New York Times. “She even had boyfriends that believed that she was that age: 22 years old.”
While dating the younger men was perfectly legal, it’s tough to get away with scamming the government.
She has since pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration and faces up to five years in federal prison without parole.
Laura Oglesby used her estranged daughter's identity to get a driver’s license, enroll in a university and obtain financial aid, the authorities said. She pleaded guilty to intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration. https://t.co/INWaDoMTSn
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 9, 2021
From the report:
Under the terms of her plea agreement, Ms. Oglesby must also pay $17,521 in restitution to Southwest Baptist University in Missouri and to her daughter Lauren Ashleigh Hays.
In total, Ms. Oglesby received $9,400 in federal student loans, $5,920 in Pell Grants, $337 for books purchased at the university’s bookstore and $1,863 in finance charges.
The real Lauren Ashleigh Hays had been estranged from her mother when her Social Security Card was originally stolen, and it’s probably safe to say their relationship is still a little rocky.
