Two suspects in a fraudulent check cashing scheme that targeted a bank in Waterboro and other banks in the area were identified by the York County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
The York County Sheriff’s Office say they were called to Partners Bank in Waterboro in January for a report of two males attempting to cash forged checks from a business in New Hampshire.
By the time deputies arrived at the bank, the suspects had already left after cashing one forged check in the amount of $1,800.
Upon further investigation, law enforcement learned that the two male suspects had visited several other banks in the area, attempting to cash fraudulent checks.
Based on what is currently known, the two suspects were successfully able to cash $11,063 from forged checks, the Sheriff’s Office says.
On Monday, the Sheriff’s Office announced that they had identified the two male suspects as 57-year-old Orlando Rodriguez of Smithfield, R.I., and 54-year-old Wilford Lee Rhodes of Mattapan, Mass.
Warrants were issued for the arrest of both suspects, and Rodriguez was taken into custody in Providence, R.I, last Friday, Feb. 28.
Rodriguez is being held in Rhode Island pending his extradition back to Maine.
The second suspect, Wilford Rhodes, is still at large.
The York County Sheriff’s Office says additional charges against the two suspects are expected from area agencies.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="36189 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=36189">2 Comments
From out of State. Pictures please.
That’s not check kiting — you can’t even do it anymore.
Back in the 20th Century, a paper check would be cashed by a bank. The bank would then send the paper check to the Federal Reserve to “clear” and the Federal Reserve would then stamp it “pay any bank” and send it to the bank that it was drawn on. When — and only when — that bank received the check would the amount be deducted from the balance in the account. Believe it or not, the bank would then mail you your canceled checks with your monthly statement.
Now this took several days and what people did was write a check and then deposit the funds to cover it a couple of days later — :”kiting” a check was writing one now and playing the “float” and putting the money in the bank later. The only time when people got into trouble was when they didn’t have the money later to put into the bank — this was common with people who had gambling problems.
And check imaging is what ended this — the scanned image of the check now follows this route.
But what happened here is basic check fraud.