Over the course of two days, three individuals from Florida are alleged to have stolen several thousand dollars from bank accounts in Central Florida.
When bank employees in Port Orange reported fraudulent behavior to the police, the investigation began. The police had discovered suspicious activity involving access to accounts and the withdrawal of large amounts of money.
The Port Orange police pulled over the suspect’s vehicle at a post office and were able to identify it by its license plate. The passengers in the vehicle were Richard Anthony (51) of North Miami, Darrel Fayson (56) of Miami Gardens, and Christopher Orefice (50) of Pembroke Pines.
On April 18 and 19, the perpetrators allegedly set out to target residents of the Port Orange neighborhood. Victims have been contacted by officers.
Police revealed that along with personal checks, credit cards manufactured in the names of the victims, and corporate checks, the men were discovered to be in possession of over 20 counterfeit driver’s licenses with the personal information of various victims.
Reports show that the detectives discovered several notes and ledgers outlining the suspects’ plot and the banks in the region they intended to rob. The police confiscated around $24,000 from their possession.
Orefice, Fayson, and Anthony were all placed in the Volusia County Jail on many charges, including a wide range of offenses, such as drug-related crimes, utilizing public record data to commit a felony, possessing false driver’s licenses, and producing forged documents.
According to Florida law, a person is guilty of check forging if they falsify, change, forge, counterfeit, or manufacture a document of legal standing. Additionally, it applies if a person is convicted of having perpetrated a third-degree crime by creating, passing, or tendering phony banknotes.
A conviction for check forging may result in penalties and a permanent criminal record, in addition to a lifelong criminal record and prison time.