Immigrants charged over stolen tax refunds

? A federal grand jury indicted eight illegal immigrants Wednesday on charges of stealing tax refund checks from Texas workers and using phony IDs to cash them in Kansas.

The indictment accuses immigrants from Mexico and Honduras of using fraudulent Texas driver’s licenses in the names of the legal workers whose refund checks were stolen to cash them in Wichita and Hutchinson.

It charges them with conspiracy to defraud the United States, illegal re-entry, forgery, aggravated identity theft and possession and use of fraudulent documents.

The dozen or so tax refund checks identified so far in the case were processed at the Internal Revenue Service Center in Austin, Texas, and mailed to apartments in Austin, Houston and Dallas, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson said.

Federal authorities are contacting the victims, who do not need to take any action, he said.