Buffalo Grove woman skips hearing

An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday when a Buffalo Grove woman failed to show up in Lake County court to be sentenced for identity theft.

Assistant State's Attorney Steven Derue said Elizabeth Ellis, of the first block of Villa Verde Drive, faces up to five years in prison but is also eligible for probation.

Derue said a 68-year-old Libertyville man noticed a $71 charge to one of his credit cards for an Aug. 26 delivery from a Vernon Hills restaurant to the Hawthorn Animal Hospital in Vernon Hills.

Police discovered that Ellis, who worked at the animal hospital, had taken the man's credit card number when he visited the hospital on Aug. 24.

When police went to question Ellis about the charge, Derue said, they found her with the credit card numbers of two other customers of the hospital.

She was charged in three separate cases of identity theft, but Derue agreed to drop two of them in exchange for her Oct. 6 guilty plea to the case involving the Libertyville man's card.

Court records show Ellis has been convicted of deceptive practices eight times since the late 1980s and served two years in prison after a 2007 conviction.

She had been free from custody on a signature bond, but the warrant issued by Circuit Judge John Phillips calls for Ellis to be held without bond when she is arrested.