ID thief allegedly kept it up for 35 years

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SEATTLE, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A suspected identity thief in Seattle used another man's name for 35 years because he wanted to dodge a warrant for drunken driving, investigators say.

Clark Lee Mower, who was arrested in late July, was formally charged this week with aggravated identity theft, Seattlepi.com reported. An affidavit filed by an investigator for the Social Security Administration describes decades of financial irresponsibility that created problems for his victim.

The investigator, Matthew Lavelle, said Mower declared bankruptcy in the 1980s under his false identity. His victim also received notices from the Internal Revenue Service about unpaid taxes and, more recently, bills for medical care in Seattle and from an emergency room in Oregon.

In the 1990s, the victim's mortgage applications were rejected because of Mower's bankruptcy, Lavelle said. He "only got a loan because he went to a local credit union that knew him and knew of his history of being an identity-theft victim."

Mower, 58, was being held without bail. Lavelle said he began the scam in 1973 because there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in California on a drunken driving charge, the Seattlepi.com said.