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Ex-Block Franchisee Pleads Guilty

A woman who owned four H&R Block franchised stores faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge that she opened lines of credits using stolen client identities. The store owner, Sherry R. Kelley, age 41, of Exmore, Va., pleaded guilty to one county of aggravated identity theft. She had been indicted on ten counts of aggravated identity theft and ten counts of using others' Social Security numbers.

Kelley formerly owned and operated four H & R Block stores located in the Virginia Eastern Shore towns off Belle Haven, Onley, Melfa, and Cheriton on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Utilizing about 20 clients' names and forged signatures on account paperwork, Kelley obtained lines of credit from H &R Block Bank. She then used the credit lines to make thousands of dollars of purchases and ATM withdrawals before later repaying the money.

H&R Block issued a statement that it had terminated the relationship with Kelley. Clients were also not liable for the debt incurred by Kelly and Block worked with them to resolve the issues.

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