RIVERHEAD - A Teaneck, New Jersey man was convicted Tuesday of identity theft and scheme to defraud charges following four days of jury deliberations in Suffolk County court in Riverhead. 

The jury convicted Lamar Whitehead, 29, of stealing the identities of local and out-of-state residents and businesses.  The scam involved Whitehead’s stealing of identities and applying for loans from online banks using his victims’ names.  The defendant often used the loans to buy luxury automobiles, or open equity lines of credit.

Whitehead, of 92 Howland Avenue, was convicted of 14 counts of first degree identity theft, a felony punishable by 2 ½ to seven years in prison; three counts of identity theft in the third degree, a misdemeanor, and one count of scheme to defraud, a felony punishable by a prison term of 1 1/3 to four years.