Reece Nutting pleads guilty to major identity theft after stealing hundreds of identities and more than $100k

A Hampton Park former FIFO worker has been slammed as “cunning and devious” after stealing more than 160 identities and more than $100,000 discovered in major police sting.

A former-FIFO worker turned fraud has been busted for stealing more than 160 different identities and more than $100,000 after a police sting exposed his deceptions.

Reece Nutting, 33, pleaded guilty in the Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on February 11 to multiple charges of obtaining property by deception, possessing false documents and identity theft.

The court heard Nutting swindled $33,678 from a Sydney loan brokerage in 2024, providing a fake ID, pay slips and other stolen identity information, before using the cash to buy a motorbike from an Epping outlet under another fake name.

One of the victim’s discovered the deception when they were fined over Nutting’s erratic driving and speeding in Melbourne’s western suburbs, which the victim later reported to police.

Reece Nutting was jailed for 27 months after stealing more than 160 identities and scamming more than $100,000 in loans from finance companies.

Cops raided a Notting Hill Airbnb in April last year on an unrelated matter, where they found Nutting had stolen more than 150 individual identities, including the people he had impersonated for the loan and motorbike.

The court heard Nutting had information on hand written notes including dates of birth, addresses, licence numbers, employers and tax file numbers.

Among the items seized were multiple fake ID’s with Nutting’s face superimposed over the victims images.

The 2024 sting was not Nutting’s first impersonation rodeo — he was busted by cops in 2022 for similar offending when a raid on his Hampton Park home turned up further stolen or fake identity documents, alongside equipment used to make fake ID’s and evidence that he had scammed a further $90,000 loan from a different finance company.

During the sting, investigators found a handwritten to-do list — penned by Nutting — outlining plans to invest the scammed cash, topics to research in relation to identity theft and more.

Two police raids turned up the “cunning and devious” identity theft, the court was told.

He appeared from Fullham Correctional Centre via video link on Tuesday, where his lawyer Brett Barratt admitted the offending was “sophisticated” and “everyone’s worst nightmare”.

“The documents make for horrendous reading … it’s conceded this is serious offending,” he said.

Magistrate Luisa Bazzani described Nutting’s offending as a “free for all”.

She said Nutting’s “swindling” was “cunning and devious,” with a “huge victimology”.

“The offending before the court is sophisticated to say the least,” she said.

“It’s well planned and executed offending, affecting literally hundreds of innocent individuals, many of whom to this day do not realise their identities have been stolen.”

Ms Bazzani said his “elaborate methodology” had allowed Nutting to fly under the radar, evading police through “continuous movement of his living arrangements”.

Nutting was sentenced to 27 months behind bars, with a non-parole period of 15 months.

He was also ordered to pay back $33,678 to the Sydney finance company.