A Mercer County woman told police it was her involvement with a criminal group that prompted her to impersonate a Cranberry Township woman and steal $7,000 from her bank account, according to charges filed Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Lashawn M. Swift, 41, of Farrell, was charged with a felony count of access device fraud after Cranberry Township Police said in an affidavit that she entered the Dollar Bank on Route 8 in Gibsonia on Sept. 25 and presented a driver’s license with the victim’s name and information.

Swift then filled out two withdrawal slips for $4,500 and $2,500, signed them using the victim’s name, and left with $7,000 from a joint account the victim shares with a man she lives with, according to the affidavit.

In December, police sent a photo of Swift taken from a bank surveillance camera to a law enforcement identification network and were contacted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which identified the woman as Swift, according to an affidavit.

A postal service inspector told police several cases involving Swift impersonating victims and committing bank fraud from June to October had been investigated, according to the affidavit.

Swift was arrested Oct. 1 at a Farmers National Bank in Punxsutawney wearing the same clothes she wore at the bank in Gibsonia, according to the affidavit.

The postal inspector told police Swift reported she was recruited by a criminal group who drove her to numerous banks and gave her fraudulent driver’s licenses, and she was paid with money and drugs after the successful fraudulent withdrawals, according to the affidavit.