Dentist and wife sentenced to one year in jail for identity theft

An Encinitas dentist and his wife who admitted using
credit card information from patients to buy luxury clothing and merchandise
were each sentenced to a year in jail and placed on five years probation on Wednesday.

Dr. Edward Bodek, 60, and wife Mary, 56, pleaded guilty earlier this
year to financial elder abuse and identity theft.

The defendants were sentenced by Vista Superior Court Judge David Berry.

According to court documents, patients began reporting last year that
they were seeing unauthorized charges — mostly large charges ranging from
$2,000 to $10,000 at a time — from the dental practice on their credit card
statements.

When patients called the dental office, they were told that the charges
were errors that would be corrected, authorities said.

A company that processes credit card charges for the dental office
reported that there had been more than $260,000 in disputed charges in the
defendants' account since the beginning of 2012, according to the court
documents.

Investigators learned that the Bodeks rented 30 storage units containing
clothing, handbags and fur coats, most of which still had the sales tags on
it and had never been worn.