Mobile police have arrested three men in connection with a check-cashing fraud scheme that investigators say targeted homeless residents in the North Broad Street area, following a tip that led officers to a car and a hotel room stocked with counterfeit checks and illegal drugs.
According to a Mobile Police Department spokeswoman, the investigation began after someone reported that two men were offering homeless individuals $500 to cash checks on their behalf, a common tactic used in check fraud schemes to distance the people actually printing or forging the checks from the transactions themselves. Officers responded to the North Broad Street area around midday to investigate the complaint and located two suspects matching the description given in the initial tip.
A search of the suspects’ vehicle, along with a room they were staying in at a Saraland hotel, turned up multiple counterfeit checks along with bags of marijuana and illegal prescription drugs, police said. The discovery led to fraud and drug charges against the men, while a third man connected to the group was booked on separate drug charges.
Jail records show the two men facing the bulk of the fraud charges were each booked on ten counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument, a felony-level charge tied to the counterfeit checks recovered during the search. A third man was charged with second-degree marijuana possession and possession of a controlled substance after drugs were found during the same search.
Records show two of the men shared a residence in Stone Mountain, Georgia, while the third listed an address in Lithonia, Georgia, indicating the group had traveled from the Atlanta area to the Mobile region as part of the alleged scheme. All three remained in the Mobile County Metro Jail as the investigation continued.
Mobile police have not indicated whether additional suspects or victims are believed to be connected to the case, and the investigation into the source of the counterfeit checks recovered from the vehicle and hotel room remained ongoing following the arrests.
About the charges
In Alabama, second-degree possession of a forged instrument, which covers knowingly possessing forged checks with intent to defraud, is a Class C felony punishable by one year and a day to 10 years in prison. At the time of these arrests, second-degree possession of marijuana for personal use was a Class A misdemeanor.
