A man who was caught using another person’s Social Security number has been given probation.
The man, Jose Concepcion Parra Chaires, 38, entered a guilty plea before General Sessions Judge Bill Locke to the reduced charge of criminal impersonation and was placed on probation for six months and directed to pay $217 restitution. He was originally charged with identity theft and bearing a false ID.
The charges were brought after it was discovered the defendant used a fake Social Security card to  secure employment at John L. Cartwright Nursery.
The rightful owner of the Social Security number, a Toni Williams from North Carolina, learned her number was being used and filed a report with the sheriff’s department here in Warren County. Acting on her report, investigator Steven Carpenter tracked down who was using the Social Security number and discovered it was Chaires. He then located him for an interview.
“He stated he had bought the card in Texas from someone who makes the cards,” Carpenter said in his warrant against Chaires. “He stated he did not know who the Social Security number belonged to.”
Lawmen say false IDs, especially in the case of immigrants from Central America, are something that is regularly seen, sometimes even in cases where the person is here legally. While it appears the legal issues will be laid to rest with his plea to the misdemeanor, Chaires could have faced federal charges since he was fraudulently using a federal identification number.