Credit Scam Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

A Laguna Beach man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he fraudulently obtained credit information from clients and then bought thousands of dollars worth of merchandise on their credit lines.

Douglas Bernth, 23, is suspected of collecting the credit histories by advertising second trust deed mortgage loans at low interest rates, police said. Potential customers would fill out loan applications that provided information ranging from bank-account data to Social Security numbers.

“He put the information in a portfolio and became the identity of that person,” Costa Mesa Police Detective Steve Labbitt said. “He did everything he could to obtain credit under that name.”

On Tuesday, Bernth pleaded innocent to four felony counts of commercial burglary and credit card fraud and forgery. His preliminary hearing is scheduled March 5.

Bernth was arrested Jan. 19 near South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court.

Labbitt said a sales clerk at The Broadway became suspicious after Bernth said he was using his father’s credit card to purchase $4,500 worth of stereo equipment, the detective said. The employee called the card holder, who said he had not authorized the transaction.

Broadway officials called police, and when Bernth walked outside to get into his 1990 Toyota Landcruiser, which Labbitt said was purchased on the credit line of a Florida bank executive, Bernth spotted the officers and attempted to run but was quickly captured.

After his arraignment Tuesday in Harbor Municipal Court, he was arrested by Los Angeles County authorities on grand theft charges involving three motorcycles that he is suspected of buying on the same Florida credit line.