Man arrested on additional charges after allegedly fleeing state bondsmen and police
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Josephus Benjamin Bell, 30, was arrested yesterday on multiple warrants and also charged with resisting an officer without violence and possession of a controlled substance. One warrant was for grand theft and fraud for allegedly taking out a loan from a credit union under a false identity; a second warrant was for failure to appear at a hearing on charges of domestic battery and theft.
Two state bondsmen located Bell at Madison Pointe Apartments, 2701 NW 23rd Boulevard, and requested assistance from Gainesville Police Department (GPD). After Bell was detained, he reportedly dropped three pills, which fell to the ground. The pills were reportedly identified as Oxycodone. While the GPD officer was collecting the pills, Bell allegedly turned and ran; one of the bondsmen grabbed his arm and stopped him, but her hand was injured in the process.
Post Miranda, Bell said the pills were Oxycodone and said, “It’s a pain pill, I’m addicted to pills… I buy them on the street.”
Bell was arrested in July 2023 and charged with domestic battery, false imprisonment, driving without a valid license, and possession of a controlled substance in two separate cases; he posted bail of $107,000 but failed to appear at a September hearing in the domestic battery case.
On June 29, 2023, Bell allegedly went to Alliance Credit Union and applied for an unsecured loan of $8,000. He allegedly presented an Illinois driver’s license in the name of Derek Morris, which had a picture of an older black man. Bell allegedly stated on the loan application that he was a Nationwide employee who makes $10,414 a month and provided a social security number that came back with an acceptable credit report. The credit union approved the loan and gave Bell $8,000.
Bell reportedly returned to the same branch of the credit union on July 7, two days after he posted bond in the July case, and met with the same employee, requesting another loan of $8,000. This time, he allegedly presented a Missouri driver’s license in the name of Craig Mayer; the driver’s license reportedly had the same photo as the Illinois license he had previously used. The credit union employee suspected fraudulent activity and asked Bell to go to a different branch; meanwhile, he notified an employee at the other branch that Bell was on his way, and they called 911.
The employee at the second branch reportedly stalled Bell while they waited for Gainesville Police Department officers to arrive. Another employee of that branch reportedly recognized Bell because they went to school together, and he provided the partial name of “Benjamin Bell.”
Bell reportedly walked out of the credit union and drove away just as an officer arrived.
The officer identified the man as Bell and noted that photos of Bell in law enforcement databases matched the man he had seen leaving the credit union. Bell’s license has been suspended since May 2023, and a sworn complaint was filed for driving without a valid license, along with the fraud charges.
Bell has one felony conviction (none violent) and three misdemeanor convictions (one violent). A charge of domestic battery from 2021 was dropped, and charges of child abuse and domestic battery from 2022 were dropped. Bail has been set at $200,000 for failure to appear, $150,000 on the fraud charges, and $50,000 on the new charges of resisting and drug possession.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.Â
Another one of Gainesville`s rocket scientists. A clue if you are going to commit fraud maybe pick a area where you are unknown to everyone. Keep playing the pill game, sooner or later you will buy the wrong pill.
Whoever approved an “$ 8,000 unsecured loan” on this miscreant ought to be fired.
Especially on an out of state drivers license. $8,000 loan on a claimed income of $10,000/month? Alliance needs to train its loan request takers better. I wonder how his account history there looked for someone making $10,000/mo.
The loan applicant/criminal provided fake IDs and the credit check came back confirming the info he gave. How could the credit union employee have known the information was fake? I think kudos are in order for suspecting fraud when he applied under another name for the second loan, and working with police to catch him.
We as a society are quick to belittle people like the first loan officer or law enforcement for not stopping every single crime before it happens, but they aren’t omniscient. Criminals like this man are crafty, and con artists are often really persuasive liars. How about punishing the criminal instead of calling for the firing of the target of the con?
The biggest failure of identity theft is failure of the business to ascertain the applicant is the person on the application. Normally, a credit union only lends to its members. This was someone with an out of state drivers license and a high income. Should not have been hard to catch.
Odds are he’ll be out before Thanksgiving and flee the state.