Don’t You Know Who I Am?

That’s one Kevin Walker too many:

Kevin Walker of Brooklyn went through his life with a rather common name, but he did not let that hold him back.

Mr. Walker, 42 and a former restaurateur, found a way to take advantage of it, assuming the identity of another Kevin Walker as part of a bank fraud scheme. And once caught and convicted, he took advantage of it again, this time trying to fake his own death to avoid prison, the authorities say.

While out on bail before his sentencing, he called around to hospitals and hospices until he found a Kevin Walker who was terminally ill, and assumed his identity.

But that, it seems, was one Kevin Walker too many.

. . .

The real Mr. Walker was arrested on Feb. 8, 2005, and charged with two counts of bank fraud. He was accused of stealing $210,000, in part by using an account in the name of his restaurant, Jamaica Me Crazy! He was convicted after a trial in October.

The charade aimed at avoiding prison began while he was free on bail awaiting sentencing, according to the prosecutor in the case.

The prosecutor, Walter M. Norkin, an assistant United States attorney, said that on the morning of Nov. 7 Mr. Walker telephoned a dozen hospitals and hospices in the New York City area in search of a terminally ill Kevin Walker.

He soon found one, at Calvary Hospital in Brooklyn, in Room 3114.