Saturday, July 03, 1999

Big spender arrested with others' credit cards

---

BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sandra Diesing

        A woman with expensive taste is suspected of paying $3,800 for a two-day shopping spree, using some of the 13 credit cards police found when they arrested her.

        Sandra Diesing, 34, of Los Angeles, was arrested last week in Martini's, downtown's Regal Cincinnati Hotel bar, a day after she walked in with a newly purchased black evening gown, handbag, designer shoes, rhine stone jewelry and a hairdo from Saks Fifth Avenue.

        “She didn't get the opportunity to stay there a second night because she switched hotels” — to the Hamilton County jail, Cincinnati police Officer Kathleen Sneed said.

        A Hamilton County grand jury has indicted Ms. Diesing on felony charges of posses sion of criminal tools, receiving stolen property and misuse of credit cards.

        Her bond has been raised to $500,000 cash because police feared she would flee.

        She told police she came to Cincinnati June 21 with an overnight trucker. She checked in to the upscale Regal Hotel on Fifth Street and went across the street to shop at Saks, Officer Sneed said.

        The next day, she allegedly went to a Radio Shack electronics store and bought a cell phone, pager and headset, but left a credit card behind.

        The hotel also had a problem with a credit card, and police arrived to investigate. They questioned Ms. Diesing and booked her into jail.

        Authorities now are alerting the holders of the credit cards, Officer Sneed said.

        The case points to the need for people to check their credit-card statements each month and report anything unusual, she said.

        Nationwide, stealing people's credit identities is the leading form of consumer fraud. But a case involving 13 credit cards instead of one or two is a big bust by local standards, Officer Sneed said.

        Now a stack of credit cards, alongside a rhinestone bracelet and earrings, are among the evidence sitting in a police storage locker waiting for Ms. Diesing's trial.

       

---

25th reunion: Time to take stock
Bell gets ringing welcome
Jailed mother barred from nursing
Aquarium loses animals
Police targeting litterers
Sweltering forecast triggers smog alert
Judge says: Don't tread on me
Big spender arrested with others' credit cards
Radioactive train load worries Indianans
The Fourth grows as a highway holiday
Boone County festival aims for more robust Taste
Cleves' fireworks moved to Monday
GET TO IT
Airstream owners trade tales of the open road
27 acres stay in Deerfield Twp.
Airport seeks options, partners to fund projects
Basketball scandal hits ex-official
Building boom changes city face
Clock fund raising on time
Commercial building booms in Middletown
Grants to slow sewage overflow
Hazard putting on a show, but president is headliner
Husband arraigned in killing
Lebanon profits from Internet, cable venture
Man arrested in shooting of teen
Man sues city, 2 officers in Feb. shooting
Mary Brogan, teacher, wife and cancer activist, left mark
Middle-schoolers 'Earn and Learn' at summer program
State to maintain insurance checks
Teacher gets settlement but no apology
TRISTATE DIGEST
Warren Co. police linked through computer network
Wilder tries to fund fire update